LAHORE:The 19th meeting of the Standing Committee on Legislative Business was held in the Civil Secretariat on Friday.
The meeting chaired by Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Social Welfare Raja Basharat was attended by Punjab Higher Education Minister Raja Yasir Humayun, Chief Secretary Major (r) Azam Salman, Board of Revenue senior member and the secretaries of the respective departments.
The committee gave go-ahead to the proposal to amend the rules regarding gas transmission network in Punjab, agreeing with the proposed amendment of sugar mills to improve the payment method for sugarcane growers in Punjab. The committee allowed the project for the establishment of the Sardar Fateh Muhammad Buzdar Institute of Cardiology in Dera Ghazi Khan.
It allowed to amend the Disabled Persons Employment and Rehabilitation Ordinance 1981 for replacing the term "disabled person" with “person with disability" in accordance with the international laws. The proposal to give more powers to the regional directors of Social Welfare Department was also approved. The committee directed the P&D secretary to brief the cabinet on the proposed Punjab social protection policy and then present it before the Standing Committee on Law.
Under the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance 1985, reconstitution of a committee and proposal for amendment in Rule 12 and 59 of the Punjab Procurement Rules 2014 was approved too. After the proposed amendments to PPRA, the tender for procurement will now apply to Rs200,000 instead of at least Rs 100,000.
Traders reservations: Punjab Chief Secretary Azam Suleman Khan said that reservations of the trader community about price determination would be addressed to ensure sufficient supplies of daily-use items at prices fixed by the government. He stated this during a meeting with a four-member delegation of All-Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran led by Secretary General Muhammad Naeem Mir at Civil Secretariat on Friday. Naeem Mir told the chief secretary that traders were left out of the process of price determination that took place at the deputy commissioner's office and they had reservations over it.
The chief secretary assured him that in future deputy commissioners and trader representatives would work together to fix prices of commodities and for the purpose a joint meeting would be held after every 15 days.
He mentioned that the rate list should be issued to the media after fixing prices with consensus and divisional commissioners would act as appellate authority in case grievances of traders were not addressed at the deputy commissioner level. The chief secretary said traders' complaints against government departments, especially Punjab food and Punjab revenue authorities, could now be presented to divisional commissioners. Naeem Mir thanked the chief secretary.