LAHORE: Punjab Assembly on Monday introduced five bills, including the Punjab Local Government Bill 2019 amid strong protest from Opposition benches.
The Opposition, while rejecting the LG Bill 2019 chanted slogans against the PTI government, rulers on the floor of the PA whereas later, led by Opposition leader Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, it lodged protest against the government for snubbing the rights of the elected representatives and carrying out the massacre of LG system.
The five bills that were introduced in the PA included the Punjab Local Government Bill 2019, Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Council Bill, Punjab Minimum Wages Bill, Alternative Dispute Resolution Bill and Punjab Animal Health Bill. All the bills were referred to the Standing Committees concerned.
Besides, two ordinances, including the Provincial Employees Social Security (Amendment) Ordinance and Punjab Zakat and Ushr (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 were also laid. The Punjab Assembly session which started with a delay of over two hours with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in chair held the question hour session related to the Food department in which Minister concerned Samiullah Chaudhry responded to the queries of legislators.
The Speaker Punjab Assembly expressed serious dismay over the way Punjab Food Authority was imposing fines on food outlets and stated that instead of sending the food samples to lab, fine tickets had been issued to the businessmen.
“This is no way, this person has no experience, the head of this body should be a technologist, what the authority he has to impose fines on people, come up with legislation over it Raja Sb” said the angry Speaker PA while grilling a senior official of the Punjab Food Authority.
Raja Basharat stated that a committee had been constituted and assured the House that all the relevant issues would come under discussion over it. The Speaker remarked which law empowered these officials to impose fine instead of judging the samples of food.
“Has anyone seen their lab, is this law of jungle and causing loss to the province, take notice of it” said the Speaker. Later, when the process of legislation started, the Opposition started to chant slogans against the government and pressed it not to come with any law meant to damage the Local Government system of Punjab.
When the Law Minister introduced the LG Bill 2019, the Opposition members started to tear the copies of agenda and chanted slogans against the government. After the session was adjourned until today (Tuesday), the Opposition members gathered outside the PA and lodged protest. Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, the Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly while talking to media, said that the government had started murdering the LG system as no fund had been allotted to the elected LG representatives. He said that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an irregularity of Rs27b had come to surface in Metro Bus Project. He warned Prime Minister Imran Khan to avoid inviting the wrath of the nation adding the PTI government had put the country economy on ventilator.
Hamza Shahbaz said the rulers had to answer for their deeds and Aleem Khan would also have to respond to the questions of the nation. The Opposition leader said that the government showed stubbornness on the issue of Public Accounts Committee’s Chairman nomination in centre. He said that he wasn’t fond of becoming the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee in Punjab.