Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi grilled minister for Food Samiullah Chaudhry on Monday during the question-hour in ongoing session of the Punjab Assembly as he failed to satisfy the House regarding the performance of his department. As per the details, MPAs and Speaker were equally annoyed over the hyperactive role of the Punjab Food Authority in the province.
The minister couldn’t justify the raids of the PFA on restaurants and eateries. “Under which law the DG PFA forcefully enters in the restaurants to check the quality of the food while imposing heavy fines on the eateries and food outlets. Is DG PFA a technical food expert,” asked furious Elahi who was chairing the session. He went on to say that the PFA doesn’t have any logistics of an authentic lab as only the PCSIR is the most trusted institution for these laboratory tests of food items. There is a dire need to do legislation on the role of PFA with some positive amendments as the existing law is creating problems for the people, said Speaker. He added that the minister for food doesn’t know anything about the PFA.
Responding the Speaker, law minister Raja Basharat also admitted that there is very variations in the fines imposed by the PFA and the government is also planning to do some amendments in it. Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry also tried to respond but he wasn’t allowed by the Speaker that annoyed Chaudhry very much.
Is DG PFA a technical food expert,’ asked furious Elahi who was chairing the session
The act of Speaker to snub Chaudhry was also welcomed by the opposition benches. Meanwhile, Speaker Elahi also directed the government to craft a rigorous policy for the distribution of gunny bags for the procurement of the wheat irrespective of the party politics. Our farmers work very hard on the crop of wheat and it is their time to get payments of their crop in the transparent way, he said. “Assigning the ministers with duties in the district for the process of wheat procurement will not work as per my experience and therefore there is a need to decentralize this system at the union councils’ level while involving the local political leaders in the process,” said Elahi, who is also the senior-most member of the House and has vast experience of politics and administration. Speaking on the occasion, former minister and now an MPA of PML-N Malik Nadeem Kamran said that the government is ignoring the MPAs of the opposition in the process of wheat procurement and distribution of gunny bags. We used to take the opposition in the loop when we were in the government during the wheat procurement season but this government of PTI has ignored the opposition, said Kamran. Minister for Food was snubbed so much by the Speaker Elahi that minister tried to leave the House on three occasions in protest but was stopped by his fellow ministers Dr Akhtar Malik (minister for energy) and Sardar Asif Nakai (minister for communications and works) who were sitting beside him.
Later, heated arguments were exchanged between the MPA of PML-N Malik Arshad and minister Samiullah Chaudhry as MPA said that his question was not responded by the minister and it is tantamount to insulting this House. MPAs of PML-N stood at their seats while chanting slogans against the Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers. They also torn the copies of the agenda items and tried to disrupt the proceedings of the House. Amid this pandemonium, the government laid two ordinances in the House including ‘The Provincial Employees’ Social Security (amendment) Ordinance 2019′ and ‘The Punjab Zakat and Ushr (amendment) Ordinance 2019’. Moreover, five bills including ‘The Punjab Local Government Bill 2019’, ‘The Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighborhood Councils Bill 2019’, ‘The Punjab Minimum Wages Bill 2019’, ‘The Alternative Dispute Resolution Bill 2019’ and ‘The Punjab Animal Health Bill 2019’ were also introduced in the House. Later, the session was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday morning.