Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan Tehreek – Insaaf (PTI) lawmakers on Tuesday lashed out at each other over development claims, during the ongoing session of the Punjab Assembly.

The session started after a delay of 1 hour and 46 minutes from its scheduled time with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair. Answers related to the Labor and Human Resource department were given during the question-hour by concerned minister Ansar Majeed Khan Niazi.

Speaking on the point of order, PTI MPA Sardar Shahab-udin Khan said that during the tenure of PML-Q, when Ch Pervaiz Elahi was the chief minister, a network of roads was established across the province, but lamented that no road was made during the 10-years long tenure of PML-N.

He also said that now the PTI government allocated a huge amount of budget for the construction and repairing of roads. “I conducted a survey and found that not a single road was constructed by PML-N. There is barren land spanning over thousands of acres in my constituency and the government should use it to provide homes to people,” said PTI MPA, who used to be in PPP during the last government.

Responding to Sardar Shahab-udin, PML-N MPA Khalil Tahir Sandhu said that Sardar Shaha-udin held several meetings with former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Dr Tauqeer Shah for his personal matters, and vowed to furnish proof of his meetings. “I can present the files in this House which will show that Sardar Shahab ud Din used to discuss personal matters with the then Principal Secretary to CM Punjab,” Khalil challenged.

Following the allegations, the perturbed PTI MPA responded that he can claim under oath that he met with Dr Tauqir Shah only once in his life.

During the session, the provincial assembly unanimously passed The Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) (Amendment) Bill 2021 and ‘The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Privileges (Amendment) Bill 2021.’

The MPAs, however, also showed grave concerns over the non-implementation of the resolutions passed by the House. The session was later adjourned to meet again on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has said that CM Usman Buzdar is serving the masses without wasting time. Talking to the media outside Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, Dr Firdous said that CM has moved the province towards development and prosperity and the budget will give a further boost to the development activities. She said the second phase of the ‘Khidmat Aap Ki Dehleez Par’ program has been launched. The 5 week long program will be continued till 1st August, she said.

The Special Assistant said that the cleanliness week will be held from 28th June to 04th July, special campaign week from 5th to 11th July, green week from 12th to 18th July, Eid ul Azha week from 19th to 25th July and Road safety week will be celebrated from July 26th to August 1st.

This program has yielded positive results and the DCs have been directed to personally supervise the program and strict measures will be taken against officials failing to take action on public complaints, she concluded.