Daily Times

Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Thursday expressed his dismay over the lack of facilitates for jail inmates in the prisons of Punjab.

“It is a grave concern that no improvement was made in the jails of Punjab during the last ten years,” said PA Speaker Elahi, while chairing the House on Thursday. He gave this ruling during the question-hour related to the prisons department.

Speaker Elahi was of the view that he was in the jail in 1996 and recalled that there was only one doctor at that time for all the prisoners and noted he introduced reforms in jail manual after becoming Chief Minister. I myself prepared a food menu for jail inmates but its quality is not the same that I introduced, he said.

He further added that the facilities are lacking in the 45-bed hospital for the jail inmates. “Mr Chohan! You can make improvements for the jail inmates during your tenure in the department,” Elahi said, while addressing the Minister for Prisons Fayyaz-ul Hassan Chohan. He said that the X -Ray and CT-scan machines are not available for inmates in jails.

Speaker also gave the ruling on the question of PML-N MPA Malik Arshad during the question-hour.He also said that strict action should be taken against those who were involved in selling drugs in the province.

Earlier, the session started after the delay of more than one and half an hour from its scheduled time with Speaker Elahi in the chair.

Earlier, the Punjab Assembly also passed Nur International University Lahore (Amendment) Bill 2021 with majority on Thursday. The bill was presented by PML (Q) MPA Khadija Omar. The House also passed a resolution which includes banning of Quaid-e-Azam’s picture and Islamic writing on counterfeit currency notes. The resolution was presented by PML-N MPA Muzzafar Ali Sheik.

According to the text of the resolution, the government should ban use of counterfeit currency notes in marriages having pictures of Quaid-e-Azam and having Islamic writing. These currency notes were thrown on marriages and came under the feet of the people. This comes under the category of desecration so the government should confiscate all counterfeit currency notes, it said.

The House also passed a unanimous resolution presented by PML (Q) MPA Khadija Omar which demands the preservation of the sacred papers. While speaking on the point of order, PML-N MPA said that the government should take notice of why schools and colleges are collecting fees despite the fact that schools and colleges are closed.

The session was later adjourned to meet again on Friday morning.