Combined Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Monday demanded the government to hold local bodies election in the province without any delay.
On a point of order, Opposition Leader in the House Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Sardar Shahab Uddin of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Mian Aslam Iqbal of the PTI raised the issue of local government elections and demanded the government to hold the polls without any delay. They said the government was using unfair tactics for releasing development funds to only treasury members and it did not include opposition members’ names in the district development committees which was discriminatory.
Answering this, Rana Sanaullah said his government was ready to hold LG elections but the court stayed it. Whenever the election commission of Pakistan would give new schedule of elections, the government would implement it, he assured. About the development funds, he said membership of any opposition member in the district development committees was not a privilege or parliamentary right of theirs as these committees were specifically administrative so the opposition should hold meeting with the chief minister if they wanted funds or to include their names in the committees.
Reacting over the law minister’s answer, opposition member Mian Aslam Iqbal warned the speaker that it (opposition) would call its separate assembly session in protest outside the assembly chamber if such attitude of the government continued towards them. The speaker immediately giving observation advised the government not to ignore any constituency on development funds.
The PA session started 32 minutes late of its scheduled time of 3pm under the chair of Speaker Rana Iqbal. Soon after reciting the Holy Quran and Naat, an opposition member Ali Raza Dareshak pointed out the quorum at 3:40 pm and the session was adjourned due to lack of required number of MPAs.
At 4:30 pm, the session restarted after completion of the quorum and the House adopted the Question Hour on labour and human resources and special education departments and concerned ministers answered the queries.
Meanwhile, Press Gallery Committee boycotted the session to highlight different sensitive issues like murders and life threats to journalists in the province especially in Journalists Colony located in Harbanspura.
The journalists held a protest demonstration and sit-in at the stairs of the assembly building. They demanded the government to take serious notice of uncovered main holes in the colony as one child Shahan drowned in it few days back. They also demanded development work in the colony as per commitment of Chief Minster Shahbaz Sharif.
They also protested against the murder of a journalist Abdullah Umar Khan Baloch from Sahiwal and threats to Gujranwala Press Club office-bearers from Federal Minister Khuram Dastgir after they exposed his illegal acts in district Gujranwala. On this, Law minister Rana Sanaullah ensured the House that his government would provide justice to victims and Journalists Colony issue would also be solved soon.
The opposition leader, through a call attention notice, also strongly criticised the police role highlighting the issue of murder of PTI leader Neelam Ashraf’s son and said that police were not taking the issue seriously. On this, the law minister ensured the House that if the opposition consented his government was ready to hold a high-level inquiry into the matter.
Later, the speaker adjourned the session till today (Tuesday) at 10am without completing the session’s agenda wherein a bill ‘The Punjab Commission on the Status of Women Bill 2013’ was also included.
