Uproar in PA over Leaks issue
LAHORE
The Punjab Assembly was in uproar after a clash between treasury and opposition over the Panama issue.
The PA session, which started late for an hour with Speaker Rana Mohammed Iqbal Khan in chair, came to an end without completion of an agenda after it failed to meet quorum, which was pointed out by PTI MPA Arif Abbasi.
After the question hour session, Opposition leader Mian Mehmood ul Rasheed, on a point of order, said the Supreme Court had issued a notice to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over a Panama issue, which could lead to his disqualification. He said the PM’s name was present in Panama Leaks. The remarks of the Opposition leader caused uproar in the House and the treasury members started chanting slogans against PTI Chairman Imran Khan, terming him the aide to Jews.
The sloganeering continued for around five minutes and when Rana Sanaullah started reading a call attention notice the quorum was pointed out and the treasury was not able to meet it after which the session was adjourned till Friday.
Later, talking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said Imran Khan couldn’t spend a day in prison. He said after the SC notice, there wasn’t any justification to hold a protest. Responding to the allegations of murder attempts made by his own party MPA Mian Tahir, Rana Sana stated allegations were also levelled on him by the same person last year and in local body elections his group was defeated.
The Punjab government gave around Rs 7.8 million to the seminaries in Lahore as Zakat in the year 2014-15, the Punjab Assembly was told on Thursday.
During a question hour session on Zakat and Ushr, Minister Malik Nadim Kamran, responding to a query of PPP legislator Faiza Malik about the details of Zakat, Ushr distributed in Lahore in the year 2014-15, told the PA that the grant (Zakat) was given to the seminaries after their clearance from the Home Department.
According to details provided by the Zakat-Ushr Department to PA, in Lahore Rs 5.5 million approximately were given to healthcare, around Rs 8.8 million for general education scholarship, around Rs 7.8m for marriage grant whereas around Rs 80m were spent as grant on technical education scholarship. Providing detail of the Zakat given to different hospitals of Lahore including private and government, Malik Nadim Kamran told the PA that around Rs 10.2m were paid to Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Rs 6 million to Ghurki Hospital, around Rs 0.9 million to Govt Nawaz Sharif Hospital, around Rs 1 million to Govt Mian Munshi Hospital, around Rs 0.9 million to Govt Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital, around Rs 1.1 million to Govt Hospital Shahdara, Govt Said Mitha Hospital got around Rs 0.7 million whereas Govt TB Hospital, Bilal Ganj got around Rs 0.7 million as Zakat. Mian Tahir Jameel, a PML-N legislator from Faisalabad, in his question voiced concern over difficulties people face in his constituency to receive Zakat grant. He complained that deserving people in his constituency (PP-69) were given lesser Zakat than allocated and he was even ready to bring them before the minister. Challenging Mian Tahir Jameel, the minister said every person was given at least Rs 1,000 in Zakat whereas it was directly given to the deserving people through easy paisa as there is no middleman in the process. He said in case of any complaint he would take action against the elements involved in any wrong practice about distributing Zakat.
Sardar Shahab-ud-Din, a PPP MPA, during the question hour session drew the attention of the minister to unavailability of Zakat-Ushr grant to the people of Bhakkar, Layyah and other adjoining areas. Responding to him, Malik Nadim Kamran said the point raised by the member was not based on fact because these areas could not be ignored.
Ahmed Ali Malik, a PML-N MPA from Kasur, on the occasion said there was no Zakat-Ushr committee chairman in the district on which the minster said the official concerned had been appointed. Rana Babar, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, responded queries about his department.