Daily Times

LAHORE: Avoiding to adopt an opposition’s private member bill regarding compulsory teaching of holy Quran in every public and private educational institute of all levels including schools and colleges, the government itself pointed out the quorum of the Wednesday session of Punjab Assembly.

The bill with the title of The Punjab Compulsory Teaching of the holy Quran Bill 2017 was moved by an opposition member from Jamaat Islami Pakistan Dr Wasim Akhtar in the House last year that was later referred to the Standing Committee on Education of the Punjab Assembly for further considerations.

The standing committee has recommended the bill after long discussions and on Wednesday as a Private Members’ Day, it was set on the agenda of the Day after completion of an hour long Question Hour session and before taking up the Resolution of Public Interests from the private members.

According to the mover of the bill, Dr Waseem Akhtar from Bahwalpur as well as Chief Whip of the ruling Nawaz League in the House Rana Arshad informed Daily Times that in the bill it was recommended that all the educational institutes including schools, colleges, institutes or set up in public or private sectors whether registered or not with the government of Punjab or any other body are bound to teach holy Quran in Arabic reading until fifth class of primery schools and translation of holy Quran from sixth to 12th classes.

The mover of the bill was of the view that untraditionally pointing out the quorum from the treasury benches was a great conspiracy from the ruling Nawaz League to stop teaching of Quran in the educational institutes while the Chief Whip of the ruling party had coined his view that almost 68 legislators of their party were sitting in the House and oppositions members could complete the remaining required number for the quorum easily but they were made conspiracy against themselves.

Anyhow, when the Q&A session on Food and Jail departments was continuing and parliamentary secretaries Chaudhry Asadullah and Faqir Dogar were giving answers to the queries of their colleagues, Waheed Gull of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) pointed out quorum surprisingly. And the Speaker adjourned the session until today (Thursday).

Earlier, on a point of order, Opposition Leader in the House Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) urged the Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan to tender his apology in the House for using abusive language for the ladies of his party who participated in the Minar-e-Pakistan rally. He said that Rana Sanaullah should take back his words too.

The Opposition Leader said that they would bring a condemning resolution against the law minister if he would not take back his words against women and make apology in the House. He also said that due to derogatory language used by the law minister, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif himself has already made apology to the nation last night.

On this, the Speaker calmed down the opposition by saying that whenever the Law Minister would come to the House, he would asked to him regarding this. The opposition members led by the opposition leader also held a protest demonstration in the stairs of the Punjab Assembly before starting the session. They chanted slogans against the Law Minister Rana Sanaullah for tendering resignation.

It is worth mentioning that some of five resolutions of public interest from private members of treasury and the opposition as well as three bills of the government were also on the agenda of the day that were not taken up by the lack of quorum.

Published in Daily Times, May 3^rd 2018.