PA all praise for govt on minerals discovery

LAHORE
ACTING Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani Thursday in Punjab Assembly criticised Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif cabinet for failing to ensure the regular attendance of Home Minister Col (r) Shuja Khanzada to answer pressing questions on the security situation of the province.
‘His irregular attendance is unacceptable. No matter how high-profile the visit of the Turkish Prime Minister to Lahore may be, the Assembly is not low profile and should not be treated as such’, said the deputy PA Speaker, responding to a justification given by cabinet member Bilal Yasin, who himself is an erratic attendee of most PA sessions. The session resumed here Thursday with less than 30 MPAs present and only one person on the opposition bench. The vacant seats in the House once again irked opposition parties leading PML-Q MPA Khadija Umar to call quorum later in the session. Absence of cabinet members, including Education Minister Rana Mashhood also drew criticism from the Opposition bench.
The Speaker allotted generous time at the onset of question hour to PML-N MPAs praising the Sharif brothers for discovery of iron ore and copper deposits in Chiniot. Meanwhile, MPA Ghiasuddin flayed MQM for being complicit in the killing of 258 innocents in the Baldia Town fire as per a JIT probe and demanded that the case be transferred to a military court for trial. He flayed Punjab police for going beyond their call of duty in enforcing the National Action Plan by illegally detaining innocent individuals and violating the sanctity of mosques premises.
Parliamentary Secretary of Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal Ilyas Ansari was humiliated by both bench members over failure to give satisfactory answers in question hours. PML-N MPA Lubna Rehan and JI MPA Waseem Akhtar berated Ansari over the misuse of Social Welfare funds by NGOs, who also failed to produce mandatory audit reports. Responding to the criticism, Ansari informed the House that 7,500 schools run by NGOs from all of Punjab receive funds from the department and were bound to give a report of their spending. He confessed that 4,500 NGOs had shown failure in using the funds for educating girls of impoverished backgrounds in Punjab. The MPA, however, added that the government intended to embark on computerisation of the entire process. Not satisfied with the answer given, JI MPA Waseem Akhtar declared that he would submit a privilege motion to the Assembly committee. Meanwhile, PML-N MPA Mian Tahir accused the Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal department for failing to audit the spending of Rs45.85 million in Faisalabad district. PML-N MPA Sultana Shaheen rebuked the Bait-ul-Maal Punjab Council practice of requiring Nikkah Namas for the application of dowry funds. She suggested that the practice be ended in order to rid poor families of being inconvenienced. Parliamentary Secretary Ansari acknowledged the problem.
The House later became riddled with confusion as the origins and responsibilities of the Women Development Department came under discussion. Displaying ignorance, Parliamentary Secy Illyas Ansari forgot that the department was indeed founded in 2002 and not 2012. Raising an adjournment motion, PML-N MPA Sheikh Allauddin alerted the House to the widespread problem of trafficking women to the Gulf States. The Speaker agreed to form a committee to inquire the matter. In government business, the ordinances of Punjab Sound Systems (Regulation) 2015, Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment), Punjab Criminal Prosecution Service were submitted to the standing committee on home affairs. Meanwhile, the Punjab Social Protection Authority Ordinance 2015 was referred to the standing committee on social welfare and Lahore Arts Council (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 to the standing committee on information. The session will resume on Friday at 9 AM.