Heated debate in Punjab Assembly on governance

LAHORE
The issue of good governance in Punjab came under heated debate as Punjab Cooperatives Minister Muhammad Iqbal Channar and Parliamentary Secretary for Services and General Administration (S&GAD) Ali Asghar Manda in the Punjab Assembly faced with the failure of their respective departments.
Punjab Assembly reconvened after a two days break on Thursday with a total of 60 MPAs present and four persons on the opposition bench. Fateha was offered upon the request of PML-N MPA Waris Khalu for the victims of the Qila Gujjar Singh terrorist attack.
It is learnt that a vigilance cell has been set up in the Chief Minister Secretariat to ensure quorum is complete while the House in session. The perpetual absence of the cabinet members and treasury bench members is said to have caused embarrassment for the Punjab government and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. On Thursday, it was interesting to note that Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood, Law Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, and Home Minister Shuja Khanzada attended the PA session.
Before proceeding into question hour on Cooperatives and Services and General Administration, the house witnessed temporary disorder with both bench members raising points of order.
Independent MPA Ehsan Riaz Fatyana, who has continued to identify quorum to the annoyance of acting PA speaker, finally brought his grievances on the House floor. Fatyana alleged that the Deputy Secretary of Punjab Assembly had denied his adjournment motion without citing a reason, the motion had called for the restoration of homes to 10,000 evicted people under the government housing schemes in the province. It was resolved by acting Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani that the motion be resubmitted for debate in PA.
Fatyana continued his tirade against the Punjab government in his point of order claiming that the PA finance committee had met under Speaker Rana Iqbal in April, 2012 and decided to upgrade the salaries of all government employees from grades 1 to 15. He demanded the acting speaker to hold follow-up meetings in this regard and also bring the attention of absent Food Minister Bilal Yasin to the problems of sugarcane farmers in Punjab.
PML-N MPA Mian Tahir Pervaiz, meanwhile, alerted the House to a private member bill he had submitted to the Assembly Secretariat with 241 signatures of MPAs increasing their monthly salaries in line with their counterparts in Sindh and Balochistan. Criticising the recently held Cholistan Jeep Rally, PPP leader Qazi Ahmed Saaed demanded that an inquiry be held into un-Islamic activities of dance and gambling during the event.
Most of the question hour revolved around the allotment of houses to government employees, recovery of illegally occupied property from transferred and retired officers, and defaulters of Cooperatives banks loans. PPP MPA Faiza Ahmed Malik noted with disdain irregularities in allotment of properties in LDA housing schemes and the selling of public welfare property including graveyards and mosques to private buyers by the administration. The PPP MPA alerted the House to the fact accepted by Parliamentary Secretary Asghar Ali Manda that the out of turn allotment record of 2007 and before is missing.
Adding to her criticism, PML-N MPA Waris Khalu pointed out the fraudulent activities of patwaris in these housing schemes.
Calling out the ineffectiveness of the SGAD department, PML-N MPA Ayesha Javed said many transferred and retired government officers had not vacated their allotted properties even after the official period of 5 years as per the 2009 Punjab Allotment Policy. She demanded that besides those cases pending in courts, the government should extract the penal rate of 60 percent of their basic pay/pension from the illegal occupants and recover the properties without delay. Meanwhile, PML-N MPA Amjad Ali Javed informed the House of loan defaulters of Cooperatives banks and alleged that the banks continued to award loans to the same individuals.
PML-N MPA Sheikh Allaudin told the assembly members that precious and rare government records with immense historical value are not being given space in government buildings and should be stored in the Ministers Block in Civil Secretariat. His question was ruled pending by the acting speaker as no satisfactory answer was given.
Failing to satisfy assembly members, both Minister Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar and Parliamentary Secretary for SGAD Ali Asghar Manda only stated policy procedures of their departments and did not give any detail on illegal occupants and loan defaulters. The assembly was adjourned for Friday.