Daily Times

LAHORE: In the last week of the continuing parliamentary year, the first ever private member’s bill has been taken up by the Punjab Assembly, which was also referred to the concerned standing committee for further consideration on Tuesday. Punjab Assembly session started one hour and three minutes late than its scheduled time on Tuesday. After reciting holy Quran and naat, the House adopted a question hour about local government & community development department and parliamentary secretary Ramazan Bhatti answered queries. During the session about Adjournment Motions, parliamentary secretary for health Khawaja Imran answered motions and postulated that the government had increased prices of only 58 medicines while 80 ventilators have been provided to the teaching hospitals across the province. The house adopted non-governmental members’ business in which a treasury legislator Sheikh Allaudin introduced a private bill named The Forest (Amendment) Bill 2016 in which he proposed an amendment that no land of any reserved jungle (forest) would be used for any purpose. It is worth mentioning that recently, the government has passed a bill to take any land of the reserve forests in the province in its use. Later, the House passed five resolutions, which included a resolution of an opposition member Ahmad Khan Bhachar to constitute a university for special children. A resolution moved by treasury member Sheikh Allaudin, which called for a conferment of “Nishan-e-Pakistan” to Mullah Abdul Qadir, Maulana Qamaruz Zaman, Salahuddin Qadir Chaudhry, Maulana Matiur Rehman Nazami and Ali Ahsan Mujahid, recently hung by Bangladesh for their loyalty to Pakistan, was also passed unanimously by the House. The House also passed the resolutions against all illegal committees and sought to take measures against price hikes.