Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz Sharif said on Thursday that Pakistan Muslim League (N) will exhaust all options besides moving courts if the present government tried to dissolve the local government system in Punjab. He said this during his speech in the Assembly while talking about law and order, local government and price control issues.
Hamza Shehbaz said the local government representatives are elected by the people and his party will resist any move of wrapping up this system. He said local government elections were held on party basis and they are willing to extend every support if some positive changes are introduced in the local government system. Hamza also asked about steps taken by Finance Minister Asad Omar to bring Rs 200 billion investment in the country. "The present government has imposed taxes of Rs 183 billion on the people of Pakistan which includes indirect taxes of Rs 70 billion. If we are unable to achieve the growth rate of 6%, then interest rate, inflation rate and unemployment will increase," he added.
He said the present government has been established as a result of historical rigging. "We accepted the result only for strengthening democratic system in the country." He said good projects of previous government should continue as their government did in the past.
The discussion on law and order, local government and price control was started by Law minister Raja Basharat. He said the PTI government will implement the national action plan in its letter and spirit.
Earlier, the Punjab Assembly passed a resolution with majority for paying tributes to former first lady Kalsoom Nawaz. The resolution was presented in the House by former speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal.
The session started 1 hour five minutes late under the chair of speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi with exchange of hot words between the members of the treasury benches and opposition.
The questions relating to specialized health care and medical education, primary and secondary health care, local government and community development and industry were on the agenda. The answers were given by provincial ministers Mian Aslam Iqbal, Raja Basharat and Dr Yasmeen Rashid.
Speaking on a point of order, PMLN (N) MPA Azama Bukhari said that the Speaker is the custodian of the whole house and he should run it independently. While responding to the questions during question hour, Minister Health Dr Yasmeen Rashid said that 50% seats of doctors and medical staff were lying vacant for many years but recruitment process will start after the by-polls. The Speaker prorogued the session for an indefinite period after the completion of agenda.
While talking to media outside the Assembly, Minister for Information and Culture Fayaz ul Hassan Chohan said the motive behind Rana Mashood's statement is just to earn cheap publicity. "It is indeed another flop venture to make the election 2018 questionable and ambiguous. The former government has tried to defame the image of establishment in the past as well." He said former PML (N) minister Mushahid Ullah had also tried to destroy the image of establishment in an interview to BBC. "Same strategy is being carried out by the Sharif family through their cronies like Rana Mashood. His yesterday's statement and his current talk here today clearly depicts that he is just narrating the dictation given by somebody else," he added.
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