Daily Times

The Punjab Assembly again passed a bill to ‘tame’ the bureaucracy, as the lawmakers can now summon the government officials through the Privilege Committee of the House.

The bill was earlier sent back to the House by the governor of Punjab for reconsideration raising some objections. However, the House has again passed it due to personal efforts of Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who showed keen interest in the said bill titled as ‘the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Privileges (Amendment) Bill’.

The interesting part of the proceedings, on Tuesday, was the active involvement of the opposition in the said bill, while the treasury supported the legislation half-heartedly as a large number of ministers were missing in the House.

As per the details, the session of Punjab Assembly started after the delay of more than two hours from its scheduled time, with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair. The speaker suspended the question-hour after taking consent from the House, and jumped to the passage of the bill. The bill was moved by PML-Q’s MPA Sajid Khan Bhatti that was passed unanimously amid the desk thumping from the opposition benches. Speaker was loud enough to announce that ‘the bill is passed’. The opposition benches were all praise for Elahi for his active role in the passage of bill that has enabled the MPAs to summon the bureaucrats before the committee of the House.

Speaking in the House, Elahi congratulated all the lawmakers and said they have made history today. “Some bureaucrats were really disturbed because of this bill, and therefore, they misguided the governor over this issue,” Elahi said. He further added that no officer would dare to breach the privilege of any MPA after the passage of the bill.

He was of the view that there were many precedents where the police or other government officials misbehaved with the public representatives. The police officials entered the house of an MPA from Gujranwala, also misbehaved with his family, he added. “It will not happen again,” Elahi remarked, and asked the MPAs to record their phone calls with the Deputy Commissioners, or other officers to present the data as proof before the committee of the House. “The chairman of the Privilege Committee has written a letter to me, in which, he said that his own privilege was breached many times but he was helpless,” said the speaker. “I checked from the National Assembly and Senate and came to know that they have very strong laws that empower the MNAs and senators, and therefore, officers are summoned there,” he observed.

Parliamentary Leader of PPP, Syed Hassan Murtaza, also lauded Elahi for his role in the said legislation. He was of the view that assets of all the bureaucrats should be investigated before and after joining the service and NAB will find numerous cases of bureaucrats.

He further added that civilian supremacy will be ensured after this legislation. PML-N senior lawmaker MPA Samiullah Khan said that a representative of federation had sent back this bill earlier, which is very rare in the parliamentary history. He was referring to the Punjab governor’s role. “I always talked about the controversial role of Punjab Governor in the Aab-e-Pak Authority as he is not entitled to play any role in its functioning according to the law, but one can still view his picture on the website of Aab-e-Pak Authority,” said MPA Samiullah Khan.

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