Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat has said that the Punjab government is going to file an appeal against the court verdict in Sahiwal tragedy case and instructions have been issued to the Advocate General in this regard.

While addressing at a press conference on Friday, the minister said that the Punjab chief minister has also constituted an inquiry commission to review all matters.

"This commission would identify weaknesses in prosecution, investigation and the process of evidence within a specific period because government is very concerned on the murder of innocent people in this tragedy," he added.

He assured that the government would fulfil requirements of justice and expressed surprise that expression of satisfaction of the heirs of victims on the recent decision is a very big question mark.

"The government got registered an FIR according to the will of the heirs and judicial inquiry was conducted. Similarly, the demand of not conducting trial in Sahiwal was also accepted. However, the heirs could be satisfied of this decision but the government is not satisfied and it will make every effort to bring the responsible persons of this tragic incident to their logical ends," he added.

To a question, he said that the government is not responsible for the poor health of Nawaz Sharif nor it showed any negligence in the treatment. He said that not only personal physician of Nawaz Sharif was satisfied about the facilities being provided by the government but it also called a special physician from Karachi. "The CM also presented his plane with the offer to call physician of his own choice from any country," he added.

He said that Nawaz Sharif had a chronic disease that abruptly reported and now we should pray for his early recovery.

To a question, he said that court has permitted Maulana Fzalur Rehman to hold the Azadi March and the government has accepted his constitutional freedom and it is hoped that the limits fixed by the court would be followed by Maulana sahib.

Meanwhile, he said that a record number of legislation has been made during the last one year; despite the presence of a strong opposition 18 bills were approved in the Punjab Assembly.

The minister apprised the media about one year performance of law and social welfare departments. He said that four bills are ready to be tabled in the Assembly while 11 important bills have been forwarded to the Standing Committees for further processing. "Effective reforms have been introduced to improve the performance of Law department. Moreover, all prevailing laws in Punjab are being updated and placed online after their translation in Urdu language for the convenience of the people," he added.

"Offices of District Attorneys and Advocate General are being interlinked with e-libraries along-with the system of monitoring so that cases could be processed soon and promotions would also be linked with their performance. Likewise, all the departments are directed that no law would be approved from the Assembly in future unless its rules are formulated within six months by them," he added.

Basharat said that the Punjab chief minister has given him the responsibility to chair 45 committees of different departments and reports of 20 such committees have been submitted to the chief minister. In addition to it, the chairmanship of eight special committees of Punjab Assembly has also been assigned to him and meetings are being regularly held to move forward in this regard, he added.

While briefing the media about the performance of social welfare department, he said that five shelter-homes are providing free residential, food and medical facilities to the needy in Lahore and more than 100,000 people have been facilitated through this platform during the last one year.

"Such shelter-homes will also be established in every division of the province along with six hospitals in Lahore," he added.

He said that solid steps have been taken to regulate more than 8000 NGOs and funding of NGOs has also been scrutinized in accordance with the requirements of FATF. He said that three percent job quota for the disabled is being followed and the regularization of 589 visually impaired daily wage employees has been started on the directions of the Chief Minister.

"Performance of social welfare department will be further improved by doing away with the issue of overlapping," he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019