PA passes motion to amend rules for another PAC

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed a motion to amend the rules for forming its third public accounts committee meant for doing the audit of Local Government between 2003 and 2009.

The permission was granted for amending the rules of procedures of the PA amid protest from the Opposition which criticised the Speaker for “bulldozing the legislation process.”

This is noteworthy that Punjab Assembly already has two public accounts committees (PACs) in the form of PAC-1 and PAC-2. The third PAC is being constituted to do the audit of over 900 paras whose audit wasn’t done for years by the previous government.

Law Minister Raja Basharat told the House about the letter written by Auditor General of Pakistan in which the issue related to the audit paras was discussed and it was recommended that a committee be formed to hold the required procedure. After this, the motion was moved to make amendment to the rules of procedures which the House passed with majority vote amid slogans of “Go Speaker Go.”

The law minister while speaking on the floor of the House criticised the PML-N and said it misled the nation and did not fulfill its constitutional duties when it was in power and now its members were making unnecessary hue and cry.

Muhammad Basharat Raja also said that the previous government didn’t even pass legislation to empower the assembly to issue production orders and it was the credit of Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi who took this initiative.

Similarly, he said the new PAC was in the interest of the province but the Opposition was lodging protest over it. Responding to an objection raised by an opposition member that things in Punjab were being controlled by the Centre, Raja said that the PML-N MPs had to wait for six months to meet their leader Nawaz Sharif in previous tenure.

Malik Muhammad Ahmad, PML-N legislator, stated that when Speaker Pervaiz Elahi entered the House and started chairing the proceedings, he was sure that legislation process would be bulldozed.

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said that the input of Opposition members would also be included and the House would move ahead while including everyone in the consultation process. Rana Mashood, PML-N legislator, when raised objection to the new PAC and criticised the PTI leadership that it was controlling Punjab from Centre, Pervaiz Elahi said that he was completely aware of the facts how the decisions made by Shahbaz Shar if were reversed by Nawaz Sharif.

He said Shahbaz Sharif floated the name of a person for the office of mayor of Lahore but Nawaz Sharif changed it. He said half of the decisions related to Lahore municipal committees were taken by Nawaz Sharif himself. Earlier, the House took up the question hour related to School Education Department in which Minister Dr Murad Raas responded to the queries of legislators.

Responding to a question asked by PPP MPA Makhdum Usman, the minister stated that the government would take back the schools given to NGOs in the past and Education Department would look after them and improve their working.