LAHORE: The blame game between opposition and treasury benches continued on Thursday in the session of Punjab Assembly during the general discussion on agriculture and food as both the government and opposition blamed each other for the poor state of agriculture in the province. Concluding the general discussion on agriculture, provincial minister Malik Nauman Langrial came hard on the opposition as he said that the last government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was responsible for ruining the small farmers of the province but now the government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will strive for the improvement of agriculture sector. Sardar Awais Leghari while delivering his speech on behalf of leader of the opposition said that the government of PTI did not allocate much amount for the agriculture sector. “I want to ask a question that what is left to allocate in the provincial kitty of Punjab after the rule of PML-N,” said the agriculture minister. “They are demanding from us to forget the policies of the last 10 years but I want to make it clear that our government will continue holding them accountable during next five years,” Malik Nauman Langrial said in his concluding speech. He further added that Pakistan was an agrarian country but the PML-N government has changed it into the concrete in the name of infrastructure projects. The minister went on to say in his rhetoric that his government doesn’t want any suggestion or advice from the opposition that stirred strong reaction and protest from the PML-N Members of Provincial Assembly present in the house. “The conduct of minister is undemocratic and against the parliamentary traditions,” said the PML-N MPAs present in the house including Waris Kalhu, Malik Arshad and Manzar Hussain Ranjha. Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari had to intervene at that point who asked the minister only to focus on the future policies instead of indulging in the past. As the deputy speaker resolved the matter, the minister said that his government is working to divide the agriculture land of Punjab in different zones and farmers will be educated to get the maximum yield by harvesting the crop according to the climate conditions of that specific zone. The interest of the lawmakers in the agriculture can be gauged by the fact that there were only 30 MPAs present in the house at that time during the general discussion on one of the most important subjects. Moreover, Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry said while concluding the discussion on food that it is really sad that those who failed to give relief to the people while staying in power for long are now criticizing us. “Awais Laghari remained in the power corridors for long in different phases but he couldn’t do anything for the uplift of his area that is still under-developed and he also failed to do something for small farmers,” the food minister said. He was of the view that the government of PTI wouldn’t allow anyone to do something wrong with the poor farmers. He further added that his government has fixed the rate of sugarcane at 180 and they will not allow the sugar mill mafia to exploit the farmers in this regard. The sugar mills will start the crushing season from Monday and the government is in contact with the protesting farmers as their rights would be protected at any cost, he said. Malik Ahmed Khan, Sheikh Allauddin, Ahmed Khan Bhachar, Ahmed Ali Aulakh, Chaudhry Iqbal Gujjar and other MPAs also took part in the discussion. Earlier, the PML-N staged a walkout from the house over the incident of clashes between the PML-N workers and police officials during the hearing of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif at the accountability court. “Our workers were injured during the baton-charge of the police officials today at the accountability court and an inquiry should be launched to probe the incident,” said MPA Khalil Tahir Sandhu as they walked out from the house. They were later approached by the government and they were back in the house as they were assured of holding an inquiry of the incident. The session was later adjourned until today (Friday). Published in Daily Times, December 7th 2018.