Daily Times

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly’s 34th session has been summoned for Monday evening after a break of 65 days. The session was delayed due to the opposition parties’ political agitation.

However, the political situation has normalised after the withdrawal of the strike call given by religious groups over the issue of Law Minister Rana Sanaullah’s resignation after Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Pir Sialvi on Thursday in his hometown.

The session has now been summoned by the government.

During the session, the lawmakers are likely to take up the Zainab murder case. She was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Kasur. Her alleged killer has been arrested by police with the help of DNA evidence.

Several resolutions calling for awarding capital punishment to the culprit from the treasury and opposition legislators have been filed.

In the resolutions from the treasury, legislator Hina Pervaiz has demanded the rapist and killer of little girls in Kasur city be hanged publicly. “He should be stoned to death in order to make an example out of him. This will put a stop to such incidents in the future,” she said.

Opposition legislator Shehnila Ruth has demanded further legislation and constitution of a commission for stopping such kind of horrible sexual brutality in the province of Punjab.

During the session, the government will move seven bills for consideration of the House that are pending for a long time. One private member’s bill titled: “The Punjab Anand Karaj Bill 2017” is also going to be presented. The bill was filed by the Sikh community’s representative in the Punjab Assembly, Ramesh Singh Arora. It seeks proper public certification of the Sikh marriages from the government of Punjab like other communities of the province.

The 33th session of the Punjab Assembly was held for just two days on November 23 and 24. The next sitting of the provincial legislators was called for January 15, 2018. However, the Punjab governor withdrew the notification for the session due to opposition rallies. The notification had been issued on January 13 and withdrawn eight hours later.

A total of 45 sittings of the continuing parliamentary year have been held. The government is trying to continue the next session for more than three weeks to complete its compulsory 100-day sittings.

On Friday, treasury legislator Hina also filed a separate resolution in favour of constructing mini dams for providing drinkable clean water to the citizens of the Lahore city. She also demanded in her resolution to make the mini dams in other districts as well. Opposition members have also filed a resolution, demanding a 100 percent increase in the salaries of government employees in the next budget. It is likely going to be tabled in the House during the current session.

Published in Daily Times, January 27^th 2018.