PA furious over health secy, baboos’ absence

LAHORE

Flaying Secretary Health and other officials over their constant irresponsible behaviour, Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani on Tuesday threatened not to chair the PA session in future if they continued to take the House for granted.

“Secretaries have to be here at all cost, if they continue this attitude, at least I will not sit in this chair in future” said Sardar Sher Gorchani, the Deputy Speaker while expressing serious dismay over the absence of Secretary Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal during the question hour session. This is noteworthy that in several previous sessions, Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Gorchani had also admonished bureaucracy over its apathetic attitude towards PA.

However, the senior official of the Punjab government who came under immense criticism directly from the chair and the members of the House was secretary health.

“He doesn’t even pick up our phones, 30 deaths have occurred in Layyah and he doesn’t even bother to sit in his office, what to talk of public, he is not even available to us” said Sardar Sher Gorchani, who hails from district Rajanpur.

“Write a letter to the chief minister, the health secretary and all others have to ensure presence during the PA proceedings” said Sher Ali Gorchani. He expressed serious resentment towards the secretary health over his apathy towards the people of Layyah where recently 30 lives were lost due to poisonous sweets.

Mian Aslam Iqbal, the PTI legislator while speaking on a point of order stated that these senior officials were leading a splendid life, living in palatial houses and stated even their servants were using official cars. He stated when a parliamentary secretary used a meagre two litre extra petrol, the bodies like NAB started inquiry process against it but these ‘baboos’ were involved in massive corruption as millions of rupees were recovered from their houses during the raids but they didn’t fulfill their responsibility towards public. He also said that these officials attached no importance to Punjab Assembly and Public Accounts Committee.

Earlier, during the question hour session, Hameeda Waheed-ud-Din, the Provincial Minister and Illyas Ansari, the Parliamentary Secretary concerned responded to the queries of legislators, including Ali Salman Siddique, Amjad Ali Javed, Raheela Khadim Hussain, Zulfiqar Ghori and others.

Zulfiqar Ghori, a minority MPA in a supplementary question raised complaint over the attitude of senior Bait-ul-Maal official for not fulfilling his responsibility properly. Sardar Shahab-ud-Din of PPP on a point of order took up the issue of Bardana (wheat bags) which were not being provided to him. Khawaja Nizam, another PPP MPA from Dera Ghazi Khan also lodged similar complaint before the chair on which the deputy speaker ordered officials concerned to address the issue.