Daily Times

The opposition in Punjab Assembly led by the PML-N came down hard on health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid during the question-hour related to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare department on Thursday. The MPAs of PML-N accused the health minister of giving wrong answers of the queries of lawmakers in the House. The MPAs of PML-N tore the copies of agenda item and stood on the benches while chanting slogans against the health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid. The pandemonium was so severe that the proceeding of the House was stopped for few minutes till the normalcy returned.

As per the details, PML-N lawmaker Rabia Naseem Farooqi refused to move on to the second question till she gets the right answer of her first question as she wasn’t satisfied with the answer of her first question. The PML-N lawmaker was asking question related to the polio virus present in different parts of the province. “Sawal ka Jawab do….Polio ka Hisab do….” slogans were chanted by the PML-N MPAs. The chair was reluctant to take her question related to the polio virus. The PML-N MPAs also raised slogans that they will not accept the dictatorship in the House. At one point, health minister told the House that she never said that Punjab is polio free.

The Panel of Chairman Mian Shafi Muhammad imposed ban on the entry of PML-N MPA Khawaja Imran Nazir in the House during the ongoing session. Khawaja, an MPA of PML-N and former health minister was accused of passing unparliamentarily remarks for law minister Raja Basharat. He refused to admit that he passed any unparliamentarily remarks to law minister. “The health minister wasn’t giving right answers related to the polio virus and I just said that don’t bulldoze the House and the Chair imposed ban on me even without listening my point of view,” said Khawaja. He was of the view that he will craft out the future strategy after consulting the party leadership. They can check the record of the House as I didn’t use any unparliamentarily remarks against the law minister, he said. The PML-N walkout out from the House over this move in protest while also pointing out the quorum that treasury failed to meet. The session was later adjourned to meet again on Friday morning due to the collapse of quorum.

Earlier, heated arguments were exchanged between Khawaja Imran and Law Minister Raja Basharat. The law minister also said that the PML-N misuses the production orders of its detained lawmakers. If they continue their unparliamentarily attitude then we request that their production orders shouldn’t be issued at all, said law minister. It is pertinent to mention here that the general discussion on Orange Line Metro Train and fixation of its fare couldn’t be initiated in the government business because treasury failed to meet the quorum. The session will resume again on Friday morning.