Daily Times

The opposition in Punjab Assembly Friday grilled the government during a session convened on the requisition of the opposition parties over the recent dengue outbreak in the province.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led opposition demanded that the government sack Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid instead of taking action against the bureaucracy over failure to control the disease.

The 15th session of the assembly started after a delay of around two hours with Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari in the chair. The opposition staged severe protest at the start of the session as the government took up some government business that was not on the agenda for the day. The opposition chanted slogans of ‘Chor Chor’ and ‘Speaker Na Manzoor’ as it said the government business cannot be taken because the session was called on the requisition of the opposition and no government business was there on the agenda.

PML-N MPA Malik Ahmed Khan read out the rules of the procedure of Punjab Assembly. Rana Mashhood of PML-N, who has also served as deputy speaker in the past, said the rules don’t allow the government business when the session was convened on the requisition of the opposition, and termed it an attack on the sanctity of the House.

The remarks of PML-N MPAs provoked Law Minister Raja Basharat who said they had such precedent from the past as well. Deputy Speaker Mazari said he is running the House as per rules of procedure. Later, Mazari gave a go ahead to the general discussion on dengue, law and order and Kashmir issue.

PML-N MPA Kh Imran Nazir said the government isn’t serious in tackling the issue of dengue outbreak. “The government has transferred the deputy commissioners of Lahore and Rawalpindi due to dengue outbreak but no action has been taken against the health minister who is actually responsible for this fiasco,” he said.

He was of the view that the government is now taking the measures that it was supposed to take seven months before to control the epidemic. He added that Shehbaz Sharif used to take meetings on dengue with officers and MPAs from 7 am to 11 am on daily basis but Chief Minister Usman Buzdar isn’t serious over the issue.

In her reply, Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said the opposition isn’t speaking truth over the issue of dengue. “Around 370 people died due to dengue in Punjab in 2011 and over 4,000 cases were reported in Rawalpindi region only when it returned in 2015,” she said, adding that the government has engaged private hospitals in treating the dengue patients. She said whenever Buzdar holds a meeting, the issue of dengue is top of the list. She claimed there were only 33 dengue patients right now in Lahore.

She said the last government didn’t appoint new doctors and many seats remained vacant. “We started doing fresh appointments after coming into government in 2018. We have done three liver transplants in PKLI while 28,000 patients got treatment from the PKLI in last one year,” she said.

The session was later prorogued for indefinite time period.