Punjab Assembly passes 8 government bills

• Opp’s three attempts of pointing out quorum fail as treasury easily manages to meet quorum

LAHORE: After falling prey to the collapse of quorum for over two weeks, the treasury on Wednesday managed to pass as many as 8 government bills during the ongoing 34th session of the Punjab Assembly.

The bills had remained pending for the past two weeks as the treasury was struggling to meet the required strength for quorum – 93 members of provincial assembly (MPAs) in the house of 371. But the government remained successful on Wednesday while putting down the opposition’s attempts to point out quorum three times.

According to the details, the session started with a delay of more than one and a half hour from its scheduled time of 10 am with Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan in the chair and questions of the lawmakers related to the Public Prosecution and Home departments were taken during the Question-Hour.

The Punjab Anand Karaj Bill 2017 was also passed during the proceedings of the private members and two private members’ resolutions were also adopted by the house unanimously.

The bills passed by the government were; The Bahawalpur Development Authority (Repeal) Bill 2018, The Limitation (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2018, The University of Narowal Bill 2018, The University of Sialkot Bill 2018, The Punjab Tianjin University of Technology Lahore Bill 2017, The Punjab Hepatitis Bill 2017, The Cholistan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Bahawalpur Bill 2018 and The Code of Civil Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2018.

Moreover, a private member resolution moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Dr Nausheen Hamid was also passed unanimously. Dr Nausheen in the resolution demanded concrete steps through effective legislation to curtail the acts of brutality against the students especially the disabled in all educational institutions of the province.

Earlier, an MPA backed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Chaudhry Yasir Zafar Sindhu who got elected in the by-elections of PP-30 Kot Momin (Sargodha) held on March 4, took the oath of his office.

The session was later adjourned for Thursday morning after the completion of the agenda.