Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly for ensuring safety of Abid Boxer

LAHORE: Opposition in the Punjab Assembly expressed concern over ‘possibility of mysterious murder’ of Abid Boxer, a Punjab Police former officer, who was arrested by Interpol from Dubai where he had been living in self-exile and is being extradited to Pakistan.

On a point of order on Tuesday, leader of the opposition Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed asked the speaker to ask the government to ensure the safety of Abid Boxer, who was notorious for killing hundreds of people in fake encounters during 90s and 2000, allegedly on the behest of top government officials. He asked the speaker to order the government for constituting a special cell to provide security to Abid Boxer.

During the proceedings chaired by Speaker Rana Iqbal Khan on a private members day, the House passed two resolutions that called for strict immediate actions against the milk sellers for injecting hormones to buffaloes for the sake of extracting extra milk. In the resolution moved by Hina Pervaiz Butt, the attention of government was drawn towards the heinous practice of injecting Oxytocin, the banned vaccine based on hormone which is given to pregnant women for loosening joints to help ease child birth, and asked for banning this dangerous practice and calling for tough punishments. The resolution said the banned hormone was causing multiple diseases among people who consume milk, especially children, and was also spreading diseases among the cattle.

While in the other resolution by Sardar Ramesh Singh, it was demanded that the duration of special diplomatic passports issued to members of Punjab Assembly be extended to lifetime. The resolution indicated that diplomatic passports issued to the members of National Assembly are of lifetime duration since they don’t carry any expiry date.

During the question hour on Primary and Secondary Healthcare, provincial minister Khwaja Imran Nazir who replied to members’ queries, told the House that government had decided to take strict disciplinary action against those doctors of public hospitals who referred the patients to heir private clinics. He informed the House that such complaints had been received against five doctors employed in public hospitals, and strict disciplinary action was being taken against them.

He said all doctors of public hospitals were being monitored with the help of Punjab Information Technology board to check against this practice. He said as a society, various strata of Pakistanis were suffering from serious moral degeneration and required tough measures to purge the society of this menace.

To another question, the minister also told the House that for realisation of the objective of providing best healthcare services to the people, the department of primary healthcare had decided to outsource two of its sections in the first phase.

He said one of those two sections had already become functional while the preparations for launching the other were in the final stages. Many members on point of order opposed the government move of outsourcing healthcare. Treasury member Mian Mohammad Rafiq said outsourcing primary healthcare would mean government had failed on its basic duty, and if that practice would continue then one day entire government would be outsourced for better services for the masses.

Dr Nosheen Hamid drew House attention towards the halting of the practice of providing financial aid cheques to senior artistes for quite some time. She said during the financial problems, a number of senior and retired artistes were living miserable lives and suffering from starvation. She indicated that two senior artistes of old days had recently died under miserable conditions without food and medical care.