PM Imran to chair PTI parliamentary meeting in Lahore today

LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair a meeting of PTI parliamentary party today (Wednesday) in the provincial metropolis for taking party’s MPAs into confidence over the amendment in local government laws.

The premier during his visit to Lahore will also hold meetings with Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, governor Ch Sarwar, Minister for Local Govt, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Basharat Raja and members of the Punjab cabinet. The meeting of PTI parliamentary party will be held at 8-Club Road.

Basharat Raja will brief the prime minister and the parliamentary party over the proposed amendment in the existing local government laws. Sources said the government intends to hold local government elections by the last quarter of this year. After taking the PTI MPAs into confidence, the Local Government Bill would be approved by the Punjab cabinet and later presented in the Punjab Assembly.

The meeting of Prime Minister Imran Khan with party MPAs, ministers is taking place at a moment when the PTI government is facing a real test from different fronts, particularly over the issues related to governance and ministers lacking power to exercise their influence in the ministries. Within one week, the reports of infighting in the PTI cadres in form of Tareen-Qureshi row, leaked video of PTI MPA from Rawalpindi Ejaz Khan Jaazi bashing the Pindi CPO over corruption and the recent press conference of provincial food minister Samiullah Chaudhry, who Monday stated that ‘insiders’ are damaging the PTI-led Punjab government, putting the ruling party into a real test.

Ejaz Khan Jaazi, a PTI MPA from Rawalpindi in a leaked video has been seen apologising to his party workers for his inability to address their grievances. In the video, he has openly accused City Police Officer Rawalpindi for charging money over the appointment of SHOs in the city.

This is noteworthy that Ejaz Khan Jaazi has taken up the issue related to corruption of the police hierarchy in the district from where the premier has chosen Law Minister Raja Basharat, who is answerable to the performance of the police. “I am not seeing justice anywhere,” said the PTI MPA in the leaked video in which he also expressed complete disappointment over the performance of his own party government in the sectors of local government and health.

Talking to The News, MPA Ejaz Khan Jaazi from Rawalpindi said the situation was awful in the district, particularly the way police were treating the poor and innocent citizens. He said it was regretful to see police brutally treating people and he himself had taken up the issue with the party hierarchy but so far nothing had improved. Similarly, Punjab Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry in a recent press conference expressed concern over the conspiracies being hatched against the Punjab government by ‘snakes in the grass’. This is not the first time that a minister has raised concern over issues relating to his ministry as prior to this, Ammar Yasir, the PML-Q MPA and minister for mines and minerals had also resigned in protest over the interference of bureaucracy in his ministry. After a gap of one month, the minister withdrew his resignation and rejoined the cabinet.

Besides, the very next day, on April 11, Punjab Assembly session has been summoned on the requisition of the Opposition whose MPAs have slammed the decision of empowering Dr Shahbaz Gill, the chief minister’s spokesperson for carrying out inspection of government departments.

PML-N MPA Uzma Zahid Bokhari through a resolution demanded resignation of chief minister as his powers were being used by ‘un-elected’ Dr Shahbaz Gill. The News contacted Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and LG Basharat Raja over the issues confronting the Punjab government, he said there was no denying the fact that issues raised by a PTI MPA in ‘frustration’ should be addressed by the government. However, he also advised the MPA to first take up the issue at a proper forum. He added that the issue highlighted by the MPA as seen in the leaked video is quite ‘exaggerated’, adding a lot could be said about the performance of the police but the allegations levelled by him were not true.

Regarding the issue of local government, he said the objections raised by the PTI MPA over the issues of sanitation and development were just because the sitting mayor of city was from the PML-N and he (Jaazi Khan) believed that public issues were not addressed properly.

To a question regarding the notification of Dr Shahbaz Gill, he said the notification empowering someone to inspect a department doesn’t mean that powers of the chief minister had been reduced. He said if someone was attending a meeting on behalf of CM, it doesn’t mean that the chief minister had ‘forgone’ his powers to anyone. He said there was nothing illegal in the notification of Dr Shahbaz Gill.