Daily Times

The Punjab Assembly on Monday unanimously passed an amendment in the rules of business pertaining to the production order of the member of the House; authorizing the Speaker to issue the production orders of any arrested MPA. The amendment says, “The Speaker may, of his own motion or on the written request of a member in the custody on the charge of a non-bailable offence, summon the member to attend a sitting or sittings of the Assembly, if the Speaker considers the presence of such member necessary.” The role of the Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in passing the amendment was highly applauded in the House as members from both the treasury and opposition benches termed the amendment as remarkable.

“I am really grateful to the Speaker and law minister in making this landmark amendment possible as we all should work on the laws that can strengthen this house,” said leader of the Opposition Hamza Shehbaz while appreciating the Speaker. He further added on the point of order that the law of production orders was there in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies of Sindh and KPK but only Punjab was lagging behind and today we have also achieved the milestone. On the occasion, Hamza Shehbaz also requested the Speaker to issue the production orders of former minister and now an MPA Khawaja Salman Rafique who is in the custody of NAB these days.

One of the senior most MPAs Saeed Akbar Niwani paid rich tribute to the Speaker and said that it is the great day in the parliamentary history of Punjab Assembly and all the credit goes to Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. He further added that it is the right of the public representative to represent his constituents in the assembly.

Speaker Pervaiz Elahi also congratulated all the members of the house while saying that the credit for this historical amendment goes to every member sitting in this house. “The Punjab Assembly is an institution and we all have to strive in strengthening it and today we have taken one step in doing so,” said Elahi while giving credit of the amendment to CM, Prime Minister and leader of the opposition. “We can’t proceed further without the support of the opposition because opposition is our part and precious asset”, he added.

Earlier, the opposition strongly resisted the passage of the bills, thereby government could manage to get passed one bill titled ‘The Punjab Right to Public Services Bill 2018’. ‘The Punjab Domestic Workers Bill 2018’ and ‘The Punjab Prevention of Conflict of Interest Bill 2018’ were pended by the law minister over the special directives of Speaker Elahi who wanted to have some more deliberations over the bills. The opposition was of the view that these bills were brought in the committee that doesn’t have the proportionate representation of the opposition according to its strength in the house and therefore, its passage is against the law and morality. The Speaker asked the law minister to consult the opposition first and then constitute the committee for the deliberation over the bills. Almost every member of the House including the opposition termed the conduct of the Speaker remarkable and said that he played the role of real custodian of the house today.

The session was later adjourned for Tuesday 11.30 am.

Published in Daily Times, January 15^th 2019.