PA condemns Raiwind terror attack

Punjab Assembly on Thursday unanimously condemned Raiwind terrorist attack and paid rich tribute to security forces for combating terrorism bravely.

The resolution moved by Law Minister Rana Sanaullah just at the beginning of the PA session paid rich tribute to the police martyrs who lost their lives in the line of duty and expressed sympathies with the families of the blast victims. The PA offered Fateha for the martyrs and prayed for the immediate recovery of the injured security personnel and citizens. The blast near a Tableeghi Ijtema claimed nine lives and injured 24.

DELIMITATIONS: Fresh delimitations of constituencies once again remained a hot topic in PA in which members across the divide voiced concern over the difficulties they are undergoing as a result of this development. First to point the issue was Opposition leader Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed who on a point of order drew the attention of the speaker towards the trouble he was facing while dealing with the issue of fresh delimitations of constituencies.

Mehmood-ur-Rasheed stated that April 3 had been set as the deadline to file objections over delimitations and as per the demand of Election Commission, complete data related to the constituency needs to be submitted with the application. He said his old constituency had been bifurcated and many new areas had been included in it, adding he was facing great difficulty in finding the required data and record which neither the EC was providing it nor the Punjab Census office. He said his staff visited the Election Commission office a day ago and despite spending hours there, it received no assistance from the EC officials who sent it to the census body but even visiting the latter, nothing changed.

Mian Mehmood said 12 days in a period of one month had already been lapsed but people were unable to receive any guidance by the EC or the census office to know the actual situation of their constituency. He said there had been so much complication in the fresh delimitations of constituencies that people had no idea what to do. The Opposition leader on the occasion demanded a committee comprising members of the House to coordinate with EC to address the problems faced by the members of PA.

Sheikh Alla ud Din, provincial minister, on the occasion expressed similar views on the floor of the House and said under the fresh delimitations, the newly-carved out constituencies have been found very complicated as in their maps, many existing areas were missing and the issue needed immediate attention. Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan while responding to the reservations expressed by legislators over delimitations of constituencies said that there wasn’t any need to visit to the Election Commission office to find record as entire details were already available on its website.

Arif Abbasi, PTI MPA from Rawalpindi, said it was true that some information regarding the new constituencies was available on internet but still there existed problems for people. He said the Election Commission was charging Rs 1,000 per map but it was printed so vaguely that one could not find proper guidance regarding constituencies. He said the people had no idea whether the details provided in the map of the new constituencies were as per the 2017 census or according to the 2013 general elections. Abbasi said proper guidance was needed regarding the circle, charge and bloc code in the map of constituencies. Speaker Rana Mohammed Iqbal Khan summoned the meeting of members to discuss the issue related to the constituencies.

TEXTBOOK: PPP MPA Faiza Malik on a point of order pointed out a mistake in the book of Islamiat for class V on which the chair asked the department concerned to take notice of it.

CRITICISM: Opposition and ruling party members lodged a protest over the lack of interest shown by the officials of the Revenue Department whose questions were made pending till next week due to their absence. The questions related to Revenue Department couldn’t be taken up as neither the concerned minister, parliamentary secretary nor the secretary of the department was present in the session. The Speaker on the occasion told the House that Parliamentary Secretary couldn’t attend the session due to medical issues and expressed anger over the absence of secretary concerned in the gallery. Ruling party MPA Mian Tariq Mehmood on the occasion said already the session had started with a long delay and now there had been no official to respond to the queries of legislators. Arif Abbasi and Asif Mehmood, both Opposition members, also criticised the government for conspiring against itself by perpetrating such attitude towards the House. Asif Mehmood, the PTI MPA, on the occasion staged a brief sit-in before the Speaker’s dice to express solidarity with the chair whose rulings were not obeyed by the officials. The session was adjourned till Friday after it failed to meet quorum that was pointed out by an opposition MPA.