Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervez Elahi on Monday showed his reservations on anti-dengue drive run by the PTI-led coalition government in the province.
He expressed these views while commenting on a question asked by PML (N) MPA Chaudhry Iftikhar Hussain Chachhar during a question-hour in the Assembly. "Mosquitoes don't belong to any party," Elahi said. He said dengue threat in the province has gone out of control. He said the government had changed the deputy commissioner Lahore instead of deputy commissioner Rawalpindi who was primarily responsible for controlling dengue in the division. He said that many people had lost their lives due to dengue. He also said the government had not launched any spray campaign in the rural areas. He further said that, at least, the PML (N) government was successful in controlling dengue and killing mosquitoes.
The Speaker questioned Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid that how many people in the province have lost their lives due to dengue. She replied that during the current year, 37 people lost their lives. The speaker responded the minister saying that her statistics was not correct.
Elahi said that former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif is responsible for the destruction of health department of the province. He said that ambulances were not reaching the hospital on time.
Dr Yasmeen Rashid said the present government had registered 18,000 barber shops in order to control hepatitis. She also said that 90 percent syringes were properly disposed so that they cannot be used again. She told the House that they were registering beauty salons also. She also claimed that hepatitis medicines are easily available in all hospitals.
Law Minister Raja Basharat told the House that the government had formed a JIT on Punjab Institute of Cardiology incident. Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar and IG police Punjab had also constituted an inquiry committee on the incident. He said 25 people were on judicial remand. However, he said the matter is sub judice and it is not possible for the government to present the findings of the committees in the House.
He was responding to the call attention notice of PML (N) MPA Hina Pervez Butt regarding deaths of people in Punjab Institute of Cardiology during a scuffle between lawyers and doctors.
The University of North Punjab, Chakwal Bill, 2019, was introduced in the House. The audit report on the accounts of district health authorities of 19 districts of the Punjab for the audit year 2017-18, audit report on the accounts of district education authorities of 19 districts of the Punjab for the audit year 2017-18 and the special audit report on the construction of Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project (Volume -1) HUD & PHE department and transport department government of Punjab were also laid in the House. Earlier, while giving a media briefing regarding the running session of Punjab Assembly Provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Social Welfare Raja Basharat said that the recent decision against former Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf has raised many legal questions and if the legal shortcomings contained in the decision are not resolved, in the future, such decisions may come against any one.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019