Daily Times

LAHORE: Has the system collapsed or the value of parliamentary institutions diminished? This question was raised in the Punjab Assembly by lawmakers over not being given proper and timely answers by the bureaucracy regarding their departmental performances.

The Punjab Assembly session on Thursday once again started two hours late form its scheduled time of 10am under the chair of Speaker Rana Iqbal and also ended without any considerable business after pointing out of quorum by the opposition, in which the government completely failed to fill the required number.

Soon after starting the session, verses from the Holy Quran and naat were recited and the speaker began the question hour about the Colonies Department. Parliamentary Secretary Zahid Akram replied to the queries of his colleagues and the chair.

A total of 22 questions were put in the question hour, of which only two questions were officially replied to. On this, the opposition parties staged a protest, demanding the speaker to take action against such “poor performance” and “violation of the ruling of the speaker regarding giving answers to questions within the fixed time” in any case.

The speaker immediately took notice of the matter and asked the parliamentary secretary about this negligence, on which he informed the House that mostly the answers forwarded to him from the department were unsatisfactory so he had sent them back for proper and accurate reply.

The opposition leader and his colleagues, including some treasury members, claimed that they had submitted the questions three to four years back and now they were being informed that the answers were not received. They called it “highly regrettable” and asked the speaker to take serious action against the responsible officials.

In response to it, Speaker Rana Iqbal directed the parliamentary secretary for issuing an urgent letter attaching the speaker’s ruling to the department about replying properly within the time given, with instructions that a copy of it should be addressed to the Punjab chief secretary. He further ordered the official to present the report on this negligence to him within 20 days.

One of the other two questions was disposed of by the reason of the absence of the mover, while a question of Malik Arshad was referred to the committee concerned, as the mover was not satisfied with the answer.

Later, opposition member Ahsan Riaz Fatiana pointed out the quorum and the speaker adjourned the session until Friday at 9am. It is also worth mentioning here that a debate on price control – inflation and imposition of the regulatory duty on some import items by the federal government – was on the day’s agenda but it was not held due to lack of quorum.

Earlier, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq held a meeting with the Punjab Assembly speaker before starting of the assembly session and discussed some parliamentary affairs and details of the Speakers’ Conference going to be held on October 24 in the city.

After the meeting, talking to the media and replying to queries of journalists, he said that he would oppose the arrest of Imran Khan as an elected member of the National Assembly on the warrants issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

He also clarified that as per the rules, his permission was not required to arrest any parliamentarian, but was is necessary to inform him prior to the arrest.

Ayaz Sadiq said that anti-democracy powers wanted clash among state institutes. He added that Nawaz Sharif was staying abroad by the reason of his wife’s illness. He also confirmed that no one had abused judiciary or the army.

Published in Daily Times, October 20^th 2017.