Daily Times

LAHORE: Opposition in the Punjab Assembly on Friday backed the warning issued by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal to ‘Babus’ for their non-cooperative attitude in cases against corruption.

The opposition’s stance pushed the Punjab government on the back foot as the speaker adjourned the session in hurry without completing the agenda.

The Punjab Assembly session started an hour and 47 minutes late on Friday under the chairmanship of Speaker Rana Iqbal Khan. Soon after the recitation of the Holy Quran and Naat, the House adopted the Question Hour about Special Education and Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education departments. Provincial Minister Chaudhry Shafique and Parliamentary Secretary Hassan Riaz answered the questions related to their departments concerned, respectively. Mostly the legislators expressed dissatisfaction over the replies from the government.

Later on a point of order, the Opposition Leader in the House Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, who belongs to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), urged the speaker to take up his adjournment motion regarding the NAB chairman’s recent statement.

Initially, the speaker refused to give him permission, saying that the Law Minister Rana Sanaullah was not present here in the House. On this, the opposition leader said that the House was not subservient the law minister.

Meanwhile, other opposition members also stood up on their benches to support the opposition leader. The speaker then allowed him to read out the adjournment motion out-of-turn, saying that the response from the government side would be given later according to the rules of the procedure of the provincial assembly of the Punjab.

In the adjournment motion, the opposition leader fully backed the reported statement of NAB chairman in the newspapers in which he had said that the departments in Punjab were not cooperating with his institution. The NAB chairman also warned Punjab departments, saying that their non-cooperative attitude would not be tolerated anymore as the bureaucracy could not follow just one man’s orders, the adjournment motion said. The opposition leader through his motion also demanded that a debate on this alarming statement of non-cooperation from the NAB chairman about the attitude of the Punjab government must be held in the House.

Interestingly, before granting permission for reading the adjournment motion in the House to the opposition leader, the speaker had said that he would be forced to stop him if he named any provincial authority in it.

When the reading of motion was completed, a treasury member, Waheed Gull, stood up on a point of order and started criticising the opposition for backing the NAB. This triggered furor in the House from the opposition benches. Seeing the sensitivity of the situation, the speaker immediately made the announcement for the adjourning the session till Monday, saying that the agenda of the day had been completed. However, the government business had not been taken up.

Earlier on Thursday, the House had debated the issues facing the Schools Education Department. The lawmakers had been briefed about the problems facing the Schools Education Department by the Parliamentary secretary on education.

Published in Daily Times, February  10^th2018.