Minister fails to wind up debate in PA

LAHORE
PUNJAB Minister for Law, Finance and Excise and Taxation, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman had to face embarrassment on Friday when the tiny opposition disallowed him to wind up the pre-budget debate on its conclusion after five days by pointing out the lack of quorum in the House.
Deputy Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani had to adjourn the proceedings for Monday afternoon as the quorum could not be maintained after ringing the bells for several minutes.
The minister had hardly spoken few sentences as the preamble of his winding up speech when opposition member Ahsan Riaz Fatiyana indicated the lack of quorum in the House. Not only the Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani, but the minister himself and several treasury members expressed indignation against Ahsan Riaz Fatiyana for his spoiling the well-earned chance after a five-day long exercise for which the PML-N government had been taking credit for being the pioneer of such a practice to seek suggestions of entire House for preparation of annual budget.
The shocked minister was first to respond by saying that Ahsan’s move was highly regrettable and against the norms of the House, adding that it had been a practice that quorum was not to be pointed out during important speeches. Deputy speaker Sher Ali Gorchani asked Ahsan that he should be ashamed of such an act to disrupt the minister during his winding up speech of an important business like the pre-budget debate.
Several treasury members began speaking and murmuring simultaneously, criticising the opposition members that they only came to attend the House proceedings for pointing out the lack of quorum. Interestingly, only three opposition members were present in the House at that time. Many woman members from treasury benches kept criticising Ahsan Riaz Fatiyana but he left the House soon after indicating that it was not in quorum.
The minister for finance was obviously the most annoyed and embarrassed person in the House after he was denied the prized opportunity for which he had been waiting for one week and attending the House to take note of the suggestions of the members. The minister had finally got the chance to deliver winding up speech when the normal House time was already exhausted. As it was Friday, the House time was three hours, as against the five hours on week days. The Deputy Speaker had extended the House time for one hour and cancelled the names of remaining members from the list of speakers to allow the minister ample time to make his winding up speech. But Ahsan Fatiyana appeared as the spoiler out of nowhere.
Earlier, the beginning of day’s proceedings were equally ominous when the Deputy Speaker was forced to cancel the Question Hour on Home affairs after it was learnt that the home secretary was not present in the House to assist the minister concerned.
The speaker took strong notice of the absence of home secretary and said it was a clear violation of his earlier ruling that secretaries of ministries concerned must ensure their presence during question hours of their departments. He postponed the Question Hour for Tuesday and observed that bureaucracy had made a mockery of this august House and had no care for it sanctity.
As the regular minister who happens to be Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman was busy in pre-budget debate the question hour was scheduled to be replied by Zakat Minister Nadeem Kamran. He said that he had been reading the replies by the departments for the last three days and was not himself satisfied with many replies and was at a loss to see that the secretary concerned was not present there to his assistance. The deputy speaker postponed the Question Hour for Home affairs for Tuesday, and asked the parliamentary secretary for law, Nazar Mohammad Gondal to make sure that the secretary concerned must be present in the House on the next time.
Meanwhile, during the pre-budget debate, Malik Muhammad Ali Khokhar expressed extreme sorrow that government had imposed a ban on distribution of canal water to the tails for irrigation purposes. He said due to the rapid urbanisation, the canals were having extra water for the last few years which could be utilised for producing more crops by irrigating the remote lands. But he was amazed by learning that the government had banned transfer of this extra water to non-irrigated lands at the tails. He said by lifting this ban several thousand growers could be benefitted and the entire nation would reap its fruits by having a boost in crops. He said Punjab had one of the best canal systems in the world but unfortunately it was not being used to increase the crop yields causing serious losses and unemployment in the country.
Other members who participated in the debate included, Ali Asghar Manda, Amjad Ali Javed, Mian Tahir, Sardar Waqas Mokal, Tamkeen Akhtar Niazi, Saqib Khursheed, Shahzad Munshi, Tariq Subhani, Amir Sultan Cheema, Abdul Rauf Mughal, Faiza Malik, Rashida Yaqoob and others.