By By Our Correspondent
Opposition parliamentarian Mohsin Leghari has alleged that the assembly staff quietly disposed of his privilege motion against Senior Minister Raja Riaz which was held in pending by the Punjab Assembly speaker with the objective of giving ruling on it.
During the assembly proceedings on Friday, Mohsin Leghari raised the issue before Deputy Speaker Rana Mashud, saying he was awaiting the speakerís ruling on his pending privilege motion against the minister. Nevertheless, the assembly staff apprised the deputy speaker that the motion had been disposed of by the speaker.
Mohsin Leghari protested before the deputy speaker against the assembly staff, claiming the speaker had held his motion in pending and given him assurance that he would give his ruling on it.
The deputy speaker requested Leghari to forward a fresh privilege motion on it. Mohsin Leghari said if he entered another motion before the house it would require another three months for processing.
Talking to The News here Friday, he stated that the Assembly Secretariat had conveyed to him that his privilege motion against Raja Riaz Ahmed had been disposed of by the speaker. He claimed that he had submitted a resolution against Raja Riaz for giving wrong and misleading statement before the entire house.
Raja Riaz, during a session in June, had claimed that relatively cold season in May and June this year had hit the ice melting process, and, resultantly, the river flows. He said the water inflow at Mangla was 45,000 cusecs on June 20 this year compared with 49,000 cusecs at the same time the previous year.
Raja also offered to resign seat if even one cusec of Punjab’s share was cut for Sindh. Nevertheless, Mohsin Leghari had produced before the assembly a notification issued by the Indus River System Authority that the water supply to Taunsa Panjnad had been reduced from 14,000 cusses to 2,900 cusses. He had also attached an official hand out issued by Minister Shazia Marree in which she had claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari had even directed for closing water releases to Punjab canals to complete the quota of Sindh.
Mohsin Leghari had submitted a privilege motion against Senior Minister Raja Riaz for making a deliberate effort to mislead the house through a false statement. He had also quoted the previous rulings of speakers that a deliberate effort to mislead the house was breach of privilege.