Daily Times

Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has summoned Deputy Commissioner (DC) Faisalabad for ignoring his directives. In his ruling, Speaker Elahi ordered that DC Faisalabad must be present in the Punjab Assembly for repeatedly ignoring his orders.

The ruling was given during the session of Punjab Assembly, which started after a delay of more than an hour from its scheduled time with Speaker Elahi in the chair on Monday.

During the session, the question-hour remained pending for second consecutive day as the questions related to the Labor and Human Resource department were put on hold in last sitting while the questions related to the Mines and Minerals department couldn’t be taken up on Monday.

As the session started, Speaker Elahi came down hard over DC Faisalabad for not attending his phone calls while summoning him in the House for Tuesday. “The DC Faisalabad isn’t paying heed to anyone including me. He is telling a lie that he is busy in meetings but the reality is that he is sitting in his house,” Elahi remarked. Summon him in the House for explanation, the Speaker ruled.

Pervaiz Elahi was of the view that Rescue 1122 station is to be built in Faisalabad with a cost of 100 million, and a letter was sent to the DC in this regard, but no reply has been accorded so far. According to Elahi, he made a phone call to DC Faisalabad,but he didn’t talk to him while also ignoring the instructions of a provincial minister. Speaker gave strong worded ruling while summoning both the DC Faisalabad and In-charge Rescue 1122 Faisalabad, today in Punjab Assembly.

PML-N senior MPA Khalil Tahir Sandhu also condemned the behavior of DC while showing solidarity with the Speaker. “You have served as Deputy Prime Minister and Chief Minister Punjab. The attitude of a BPS-18 officer for you is highly condemnable,” said PML-N lawmaker.

Later, during the session, Audit Reports on the Accounts of Expenditure of Government of the Punjab for the Audit Year 2019-20, Special Study on Stock of Stone-Irrigation Department, Government of the Punjab for the Audit Year 2017-18 and Audit Report on the Accounts of Communication and Works, Housing, Urban Developments & Public Health Engineering, Irrigation, Local Government & Community Development, Energy Departments and Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab, Government of the Punjab for the Audit Year 2019-20 were laid in the House.

Meanwhile, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat said that the Punjab government is taking concrete steps for the welfare and protection of women. “The Punjab Women Protection Authority has been activated to help women victims of violence, while after Multan, women protection centers are being set up in Rawalpindi and Lahore,” said Raja Basharat. He further added that the government had recently introduced two important bills regarding women, namely the Women’s Hostels Authority and women’s enforcement share in property bill 2021, which would become law after approval. “Further legislation will be enacted on the directive of Chief Minister Usman Bazdar to empower the women in society,” he added. He said that women are being given effective representation in every sector of life in Punjab.

Moreover, during the session newly elected MPA from Wazirabad Talat Mehmmod Shaukat took the oath of office.The session was later adjourned to meet again on Tuesday afternoon.