LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed the Punjab Protection of Women from Violence Bill 2022. Provincial Minister Basharat Raja presented nine audit reports including the audit report of 2017-18 on the accounts of District Government Nankana Sahib in the House.
The House also passed a condemnation resolution on the killing of senior journalist Arshad Sharif.
Speaker Punjab Assembly Muhammad Sabtain Khan presided over the assembly session which started with a delay of two hours and 55 minutes as usual. At the beginning of the meeting, the newly-elected members of the Assembly Faisal Khan Niazi, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed Bhangu and Malik Muzaffar took the oath of their membership from the Speaker Muhammad Sabtain Khan.
Former Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal and Tahir Khalil Sindhu on the point of order said the House could not run without the rules. He said the opposition indicated the quorum but still the meeting continued, on which the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly Muhammad Sabtain Khan and the Provincial Minister Parliamentary Affairs Muhammad Basharat Raja replied that government was running the session as per the rules.
General Secretary of People’s Party Central Punjab and Parliamentary Leader in Punjab Assembly Syed Hassan Murtaza termed the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf long march as an attempt to destabilise the country.
Talking outside the Punjab Assembly along with the PPP Central Punjab leaders Shehzad Saeed Cheema, Afraz Naqvi and Ahsan Rizvi Murtaza questioned that in a situation when the economy of the country was improving, it was strange to talk about long march.
Murtaza said PPP was not in favour of stopping long marches or protests if it was peaceful but the past history showed that PTI’s protests were never peaceful.
He said “we are sorry for the death of Arshad Sharif and are with the bereaved family in the hour of sorrow.”
Hasan Murtaza said the Punjab government would have to see whether they supported the chaos or played their constitutional role. He said that was the time to save the country.
Earlier, while speaking on the floor of the House Syed Hassan Murtaza said that speaker should restore the membership of suspended MPA’s.
He also said that “suspension of members is an undemocratic behaviour. Speaker is a noble figure. He should bring them back to the House.”
While criticising Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi Hassan Murtaza said they didn’t have any objection on giving funds of billions of rupees to Gujrat and Mandi Bahauuddin because they were part of Punjab province but government should give funds to other districts also, adding that he didn’t have any objection if the government made union council a district.
He said he was an elected member but he was not given a single penny by the government, adding that his constituency had no drinking water and no funds had been allocated for development in his district.
He said Chiniot Faisalabad Road was a business hub and the industry on the road gave taxes worth billions of rupees but everyday innocent people lost their lives because of the bad condition of the roads.
He informed the House that “if no dam is built in my village then it is expected that three villages of his constituency will be swept away in the next flood.”
While responding to Hassan Murtaza, speaker Punjab Assembly Sabtain Khan said he would think about restoring the membership of the suspended MPA’s. He also said that he would also discuss the construction of Chiniot-Faisalabad Road and the sugar cane crushing season.
PTI Leader Syed Yawar Abbas Bukhari said he was not in favour of restoring the membership of the MPA’s who were responsible for creating unrest in the House. He said Maryam Nawaz should be ashamed of what she tweeted.
After completing the agenda, Speaker Punjab Assembly adjourned the meeting till 2pm on November 10.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022