Daily Times

LAHORE: In the absence of the opposition in Punjab Assembly on Wednesday, the provincial government passed a resolution against the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) days after the arrest of Ahad Cheema, former director general of the Lahore Development, on corruption charges.

The resolution was moved by Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan. The House expressed its serious concern over the NAB’s actions that, the resolution said, were against basic human rights and honour of citizens.

In the resolution, Cheema’s harassment, insult, character assassination and media publicity after his arrest were declared illegal and unethical acts.

Demanding that the bureau must not evade the edicts of the constitution pertaining to basic human rights, the House of provincial representatives suggested that the federal government should take up the matter in the Parliament and also amend the NAB Ordinance of 1999 to rationalise the bureau’s powers, ending the law of ‘plea bargain’ especially, as it was a way to give protections to people involved in corrupt practices.

The Punjab Assembly session on Wednesday started with a delay of 54 minutes with Speaker Rana Iqbal in chair. On a point of order, Opposition Leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) raised the matter of corruption in Multan Metro project by calling Faisal Subhan as a front man of the chief minister.

He urged the chief minister to join the assembly session and respond to the allegations leveled during Chinese investigations on the floor of the House.

All the opposition members then came forward from their benches and surrounded the speaker’s desk. They were chanting anti-Shahbaz Sharif slogans and throwing agenda copies in the air. In response, some treasury members started chanting slogans against PTI chairman Imran Khan.

Published in Daily Times, March 1^st 2018.