LAHORE: The treasury and opposition locked horns over the tragic incident of Zainab who was brutally killed after rape in Kasur, on the very first day of the 34th session of the Punjab Assembly that started on Monday.
As per the details, while Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah Khan was replying to a call-attention notice submitted by the Leader of the Opposition Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed over the murder of Zainab, the opposition members started shouting on the government and said that the province is being run like a police state where only the ‘law of jungle’ prevails.
“The anger and fury of the people was natural in Kasur as 12 innocent girls were raped within their vicinity, but the Punjab police opened direct fire at the protesters who took to roads in the aftermath of the minor’s murder and two people were killed as a result,” the opposition leader said while adding that the august house that is the representative of over 110 million people of Punjab demand justice for them who were killed that day.
He further said that it was not the first case of child abuse in Kasur as over 250 innocent children were sexually abused in Hussain Khanwala – a local village of Kasur, but the government did nothing to stop such inhumane activities.
Replying to the leader of the opposition, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the opposition is just trying to score points over the tragic incident, and the opposition leader is exaggerating the situation. The opposition leader doesn’t even know the actual figure, he added.
“I don’t want to speak much over the Zainab murder case as the matter is sub-judice, but I want to tell the house that I have collected all the proofs of those unhidden hands who fed anchorperson Dr Shahid Masood with the fake news of 37 bank accounts to the accused Imran’s name,” Sanaullah said.
Sloganeering from both the sides continued throughout the arguments of both Sanaullah and Mehmood-ur-Rasheed.
Earlier in the day, opposition members expressed complete dissatisfaction over the replies to their queries from the government during the question hour that was designated for the environment protection and transport departments. Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Nawaz Chohan was not well-prepared for the queries and was unable to give answers related to the orange line train project.
Arif Abbasi, a lawmaker of the PTI from Rawalpindi kept asking about the interest rate on the loan that was taken from China, but the parliamentary secretary had no answers to share. Moreover, he told the house that 1.626 billion has been earmarked in the foreign debt for the orange train. He was later asked by Mehmood-Ur Rasheed if the amount was in rupees or dollars, to which he once again had no answer. The Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal asked the parliamentary secretary to submit a detailed answer on Thursday.
It may be noted that the session that started after a delay of around four hours from the scheduled time of 2 PM, was held after a gap of over two months because of the issues of resignations of some lawmakers and the country-wide protests over the issue of finality of prophethood.
The session was adjourned till Tuesday morning owing to the lack of quorum on Monday.
