With a point of view to speed up foreign investment in the province as well as the provision of employment for the masses, the Punjab Assembly (PA) on Tuesday demanded the federal government to give a 2 percent concession in taxes to the province’s foreign investors.
As Tuesday was the Private Members Day, the PA adopted two out of the three resolutions presented and pended the third one. Through the first resolution presented by Treasury Member Shiekh Alauddin, the federal government was asked to offer taxation concessions to foreign investors to encourage foreign investment in the province, which would in turn raise the province’s employment levels.
The second resolution moved by Treasury legislator Chaudhary Iftikhar Ali Chachar demanded a Tehsil status for Okara’s Basirpur. Both the resolutions were unanimously approved.
However, the assembly pended the third condemnation resolution till Wednesday. It was moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)’s Mian Aslam Iqbal against drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
The resolution demanded the federal government communicate to the US government that drone attacks on Pakistani territory were not acceptable in any circumstances. The resolution’s contents included the stance that killing of innocent people by these spy planes strikes and other attacks were attacks on Pakistan’s independence and sovereignty.
Moreover, it demanded the end of this chapter of relations between Pakistan and the US and the commencement of a new era of relations based on mutual respect and equality.
Though the resolution was not directly opposed, Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah was of the view that the submission of the resolution in the presence of another resolution on the same subject was useless.
While opposing PTI’s resolution, Sana said that the federal government had already emphasised on drone attacks being against the country’s sovereignty, adding that the federal government had already discussed the matter with United Nations (UN) Chief Ban Ki-Moon during his visit to Pakistan.
In response, Aslam said that the government needed to launch a worldwide campaign against these drone attacks and act as per the public’s aspirations.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Dr Waseem Akhtar seconded Aslam’s stance while another opposition leader Mian Mahmood Rashid said that the passing of the resolution would not weaken the federal government’s stance and would instead fortify the Pakistani stance. He said that if it was opposed the masses would realise that the PML-N was in favour of these drone attacks upon which Sana said that the PML-N was not opposing the resolution but wanted slight amendments to its wordings after which the latter would have no objections over it.
Concluding the debate, Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal remarked that both parties should decide the matter themselves after which Sana said that the resolution would be tabled in the house after the amendment, on Wednesday.
The session started one and a half hours later than its scheduled time at 11:30am. The question hour was about the Higher Education Department during which Education Minister Rana Mashood Ahmed Khan could not properly answer to the queries made by the lawmakers.
PPP’s Faiza Malik questioned the appointment of Lahore College University for Women’s vice chancellor saying that the selection procedure’s rules were violated. She claimed that SM Ali Rizvi was appointed the VC against the merit rules, adding that his wife was also appointed in the same university without following the merit policy. She insisted that action must be taken against the Education Department’s officials concerned, otherwise she would bring a privilege motion to the PA. Upon this Mashood said that the reply was correct and Malik had misunderstood the issue. However, when the matter turned against him, he assured Malik that action would be taken against those who had submitted a wrong reply in the PA.
In response to PPP’s Qazi Saeed’s question, Mashood disclosed the presence of about 4,000 lecturer vacancies in the Education Department. The government wanted to fill the vacancies as soon as possible, he added. He told the PA that the government would announce its Education Policy within the next three months. To another question, he said that his department would send a service structure to the Finance Department and as soon as the latter replied, the former would announce the service structure for the lecturers.
Upon completion of the agenda, the speaker adjourned the session till 10am on Wednesday. On Wednesday, a general discussion on the LG bill will be followed by an approval from the house.
