Treasury benches 'skilfully' disposed of bills that were tabled by the opposition on private educational institutions and co-operative societies on Tuesday during the private members day in the Punjab Assembly.
Treasury benches kept the upper hand due to thin presence of the opposition that, too, in the absence of outspoken Rana Sanaullah.
MMA legislators Arshad Mehmud Baggu and Syed Ehsanullah Waqas tabled 'The Punjab Private Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill-2005', which was opposed by Punjab Education Minister Imran Masood.
Baggu and Waqas argued that many private educational institutions were exploiting masses by charging high fees and imparting poor education. They said many schools and colleges were performing below average, while it has also been observed that many unregistered educational institutions were operating in the province and there was no law to check on them.
"The proposed amendments would place a check on the performance of private schools and colleges, and it also proposes to categorise such institutions based on their performance and facilities they provide," they added.
The education minister 'skilfully' convinced the opposition to dispose of the bill with an assurance that their amendments would be accommodated in another bill on the subject, which a 12-member special committee, constituted by the house, was working on. Interestingly, the treasury members have an overwhelming majority in the committee and it would be interesting to see to what extent proposals of the opposition would be accommodated.
However, credit goes to the education minister for cleverly tackling the issue, as if the house has passed the bill in question, otherwise, the credit would have gone to the opposition for regulating private schools and colleges.
Now, whenever the committee-proposed bill passed by the house, the government would take laurels for putting the jinni back into the bottle. A huge question mark hangs over 'whenever', as many private schools and colleges have the backing of different MPAs.
Moreover, since its inception seven months back, the committee met only once, which was also highlighted by legislators and demanded its reconstitution to include more active members of the house. Meanwhile, the speaker directed the committee to meet at the earliest and finalise the bill by the next session of the house and also favoured inclusion of the opposition's proposals.
The second amendment bill of the opposition 'The Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill 2005', also met a similar treatment, which was opposed by Punjab Co-operative Minister Colonel Malik Anwar (Retd). The minister said the Punjab chief minister has constituted a committee, which was preparing amendments for the Co-operative Societies Act 1925, which in fact, has become outdated and needed to be updated with present day requirements.
He invited the opposition members to join the committee and put their proposals before the committee. "The bill would be drafted at the earliest so that it could be presented before the next Punjab cabinet meeting for final approval and, thereafter, tabled before the house in the next session," he added.
Earlier, the opposition tabled a bill 'The Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying Activities Bill 2005', which was unanimously rejected by the house on the pretext that it would take away an entertainment from the people as well as economic activities and make huge losses to the national exchequer.
Treasury benches were of the view that kite flying was part of our culture and entertainment, and was also a mean of earning for many people. While the opposition contented the festival has claimed many lives and causing huge losses to Wapda.
Opposing the bill, Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Raja Basharat said an ordinance already exists on the subject, which bars the use of metal wire and nylon string for kite flying. He assured the house that strict measures were being taken on the matter, however, there was no need to ban kite flying.
Meanwhile, during a point of order, PPPP Samiullah pointed toward a news item that an objection has been raised over the matriculation certificate of Lieutenant General Malik Majeed (Retd), who was intending to context district government elections. He cheekily said such objection calls for constitution of a tribunal to check the authentication of educational certificates of those retied generals who were in assemblies or intending to join one.
"It would also be appropriate to check matriculation certificate of General Pervez Musharraf," he added. This very statement created a commotion in the house.
When the house began its proceedings, opposition leader Qasim Zia raised a point of order in which he highlighted the attack on a union council Nazim of Faisalabad belonging to an opposition party.
He said the government-backed Nazim candidate attacked the winning Nazim's house, while the concerned police officials showed indifferent attitude on the incident. "The government has given a free-hand to its people to harass the opposition and it was least bothered about the law and order situation," he alleged. In response, the law minister said he would look into the matter and would ensure that justice was served. The house also discussed the health department during the question-answer session.
In fact, throughout the proceedings, the attendance was thin and failed to meet the quorum, but no one pointed it out to the speaker. The house was adjourned till Wednesday morning.