Punjab PA passes three bills sans opposition

LAHORE: The government passed three legislations in Punjab Assembly on Wednesday including the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2019, amidst the walkout by opposition members who protested for not allowing them to present amendments and passing the legislations in haste.

Despite lamenting that the government made U-turn on its promise of giving provincial status to South Punjab region, the opposition suggested the treasury to support bills for creating two new provinces, South Punjab and Bahawalpur. But the PTI government refused the demand.

PML-N’s Waris Kallu sought permission of the chair for proposing amendment in draft of the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2019. He said that the government has rejected proposed amendments in the draft law on technical ground.

He accused the government of not fulfilling legal requirements while presenting the bill for approval. Law minister Raja Basharat said the opposition has not submitted amendments in time as per the rules. Accusing the opposition members of disinterested in legislative business, he asked why the opposition always wait for the last day for proposing amendments.

He suggested the chair to disallow the amendments, which was done. This caused anger and protest among the opposition members who staged a walkout while chanting slogans against the government. In the absence of opposition, the House passed the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2019, the Punjab Probation and Parole Service Bill 2019 and the Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Councils (Amendment) Bill 2019.

Earlier, PML-N’s Awais Leghari on a point of order drew attention of the chair towards indifferent attitude of the government on the issue of new provinces. He said those who raised slogan of giving status of a province to southern districts of Punjab were now openly declaring their inability to fulfill the promise.

He said PTI government was not interested in creating new provinces but made the promises only to hoodwink the people of south Punjab. He alleged that PTI government was backing away from the promise under the pretext of not having required numbers in the National Assembly and Senate, which was another deception since the government can easily manage the support for this common cause. The issue should be discussed on the floor of the House, he said.