Punjab Assembly members are showing lack of interest in the on-going 18th session, as on Friday the House commenced its proceedings late, with only three legislators including the Speaker were present, and at no stage the quorum requirement was fulfilled. Speaker Afzal Sahi, Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja and Opposition MPA Rana Aftab were the only members who could arrive in the morning to attend the session, which kicked off its proceedings with question-answer session on home and jail departments.
The session, lasted for three hours, was never in a position to fulfil the quorum and the Opposition kept quiet on the issue.
Sources in the Punjab Assembly alleged that the attendance sheet showed the presence of majority of the legislators, but in reality only around 50 members were present near the end of the session.
According to the sources, it has become a routine for legislators, especially belonging to the treasury benches, to ask their fellow colleagues to sign the attendance sheet on their behalf. If they avoid proxy signing, they would lose Rs 2450 per day as TA/DA.
What was even stranger to witness was the absence of Punjab Prisons Minister Saeed Akbar Khan Niwani and his Parliamentary Secretary from the House to answer the questions. Since both the questioners and respondents were absent, only one question of Rana Aftab was taken up that was related to the Punjab Law Minister.
Just to fulfil the formality, Rana Aftab asked the Minister about the steps taken to check high crime rate in the province.
Basharat Raja replied that due to effective steps of the Punjab government the crime in the province was decreasing. He said that the government has taken the initiative of improving police infrastructure and environment, which has helped in lowering the crime rate.
Later, Punjab Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal presented the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) Annual Report 2003. During the debate on the report, Rana Aftab objected to the recruitment of grade 15 and 16 officers by a district government, which was the job of PPSC.
He said that this move was against the spirit of the devolution. He also objected on the induction of two retired Major Generals in the 15-member board of PPSC. He regretted that more and more army officers were being inducted in civil departments. He requested the government to spare some of the civil departments for civilians. "I would also suggest the government to curb the practice of 'ad hocism' and contract employment, which discourages talented youth to enter government service," he added.
Samiullah Khan, Syed Ehsanullah Waqas, Dr Wasim Akhtar, Asghar Ali and Uzma Bokhari of the Opposition benches also took part in the debate on the issue. They all laid emphasis on the need for changing the medium of language for the PPSC examination. They said that there was a need for moving away from English language and fully adopting the Urdu language. They were of the view that the current system favours a certain class that was educated in expensive English medium schools, while the rest, especially from the remote areas, were deprived of a fair competition.
They also pointed out that in 2004, 19,107 applicants applied for 78 posts in the food department, which reflects socio-economic and unemployment problems in the province. They were of the view that lack of jobs and non-existence of merit frustrated many educated youth; hence they turn to criminal activities for livelihood.
The Opposition members also showed concern over less recruitment in the education and health departments through PPSC and criticised both departments for not observing merit, while making direct recruitment.
In the closing speech, the Food Minister assured the House that both in education and health departments all recruitment was made on merit. He further said that it was a wrong notion that PPSC and FPSC were not giving opportunities to middle class. "In fact both provide equal opportunities to all to compete for government posts.
Moreover, services of PPSC would be availed for contractual posts, while the district governments had the authority to recruit grade 15 or below officials and they follow a laid down procedure," he added.
According to him, many of the honourable members of the House were not aware of the fact that a PPSC candidate had an option of taking examination in either English or Urdu. However, it would illogical to drop the English language, it was 'lingua franca'.