Daily Times

The opposition in Punjab Assembly recorded a strong protest in the House on Wednesday while rejecting the report of Joint Investigation Team over the Sahiwal incident. The opposition wanted to have a general discussion over the JIT report in the House but the Chair didn’t allow prompting the lawmakers to launch the protest as they surrounded the dais of Speaker while chanting slogans against the government and JIT report. The MPAs also tore the copies of agenda item in protest for not being allowed to speak over the Sahiwal incident.

Former Speaker Rana Iqbal said that the Sahiwal tragedy is sheer embarrassment for us as it was an incident of barbarism and therefore government cannot be spared over it. He once again demanded the formation of Judicial Commission to probe the Sahiwal tragedy that took four lives. “The law minister made a commitment the other day that he will first brief this House over the JIT report but he is being seen giving briefings to the media while ignoring this august house,” said PML-N lawmaker Dr Mazhar Iqbal who wanted a briefing from the law minister.

Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi intervened at that point and directed the law minister Raja Basharat to first give a briefing to the House. Raja agreed and once again committed to a briefing in the House as per the directions given by the Speaker.

The session of Punjab Assembly started after a delay of over an hour on Wednesday with Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari in the chair. The quorum collapsed in the beginning and he had to adjourn the session for 15 minutes. The treasury later managed to meet the quorum and the government also passed three bills that were pending for several days. The Punjab Domestic Workers Bill, The Namal Institute Mianwali Bill and The Punjab Occupational Safety and Health Bill were passed in the house with majority. The Punjab Prevention of Conflict of Interest Bill was deferred once again over the request of the opposition and it would be brought in the house some other day.

Senior minister Aleem Khan who holds the portfolio of Local Government told the house during the Question-Hour that the virus of hepatitis was found everywhere in the water in whole province. The provision of clean drinking water is the priority of our government and we are establishing an authority in this regard that would start working soon. Sardar Shahab-ud-Din, an MPA of PTI from Layyah, and Malik Arshad of PML-N from Sahiwal also complained that virus of hepatitis was also found in the water in their constituencies. Senior minister also apprised the House that projects to produce electricity from waste would be completed in 2019 in seven major cities of the province. “We are initiating the project to produce electricity from the waste in seven cities and all these projects will be eco-friendly,” Aleem Khan said.

The session was later adjourned for Thursday.

Published in Daily Times, January 24^th 2019.