Pakistan Muslim League-Q on Thursday walked out from National Assembly, protesting against the alleged poll rigging in recent by-election in Gujrat, the hometown of party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. In a much lacklustre session of the lower House when all hope died down about tabling of 18th Amendment bill in Parliament due to U-turn by PML-N, PML-Q accused Punjab government of using official machinery in by-election of Gujrat to secure the seat.
Speaking on a point of order, MNA Amir Muqam, who is also PML-Q provincial president in NWFP, said that PML-N has broken all the records of poll rigging in recent Gujrat elections, torturing voters of PML-Q, particularly women. His party, he said, walks out from the house against the highhandedness of PML-N in the recent elections in Gujrat. The PML-Q lawmakers sans members of forward bloc left the House led by Amir Moqam. However, against the tradition, nobody bothered to bring the protesting members back to the house till its adjournment.
Responding to allegations, PML-N member Khawaja Saad Rafiq said the Gujrat seat was won by his party in the general elections and again secured it in the by-election. He said that PML-Q leadership is itself champion as far as rigging is concerned. Ghazanfar Gul, the newly appointed Advisor to Prime Minister hailing from Gujrat said that it was for the first time that the Chaudhry brothers were not allowed to rig the polls that's why they are crying.
Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao on a point of order said that government should inform the house as to why the proposed constitutional amendment bill could not be finalised as there was consensus across the board. He also criticised Ministry of Water and Power over the unending fiasco of load-shedding in the country.
Responding to a calling attention notice, Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin said that eradication of hepatitis is the top priority of government and Rs 40 million have been earmarked under the Prime Minister health program to fight the menace of hepatitis.
The Minister further said that polluted water, bilateral cross cousin marriage system, sexual intercourse and other elements are responsible for the various kind of hepatitis and government is taking a number of measures to overcome the issue.
Fouzia Wahab pointed out that Interior Ministry created hurdles to give citizenship to over 100 people from Junagadh, who applied for citizenship. Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaz Asharaf dispelled the impression that Iran has offered electricity to Pakistan at 6 cent per unit.
He said that under a previous agreement, Pakistan was receiving 39-mw electricity from Iran for Gwadar at 5 cent per unit now it is demanding 11.56 per unit after ending of the previous agreement. The second agreement with Iran, he said, has been signed for import of 100 megawatts of electricity and necessary infrastructure is being constructed for the purpose.
He also mentioned the third agreement with Iran under which a 400-km long pipeline would be laid from Zahedan Iran to Gwadar for supply of 1000-mw electricity and two firms one each from Iran and Pakistan are working on the project and an Iranian bank is extending loan facility in this regard. The Minister denied that markup on the circular debt which was reportedly passed on to power consumers. The Minister further said that the load shedding has currently increased due to early coming of hot season and was optimistic that it would decrease as the water level in rivers increases in coming months.
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