Opp walks out over remarks against doctors

LAHORE:The Opposition walked out of the Punjab Assembly Monday over objectionable remarks used by a treasury MPA against young doctors.

Young doctors were termed “ill mannered” by Syed Yawar Bokhari, who is also the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee 2 that led to a boycott by the Opposition. Besides, the PA was also told that the total number of people whose corona tests had been done in Punjab is 327,072.

The PA session Monday began with a delay of nearly one hour with MPA Mian Mohammed Shafi in chair. In the absence of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Mian Shafi, who is member of the Panel of Chairman presided over the proceedings. The PA held a question hour session related to the Local Government and Community Development and Parliamentary Secretary Mumtaz Bhachar responded to the queries of the legislators.

Moreover, newly elected MPA on reserved seats Sania Kamran also took oath as the member of Punjab Assembly. Sania Kamran has become MPA after the death of PTI legislator Shaheen Raza. The situation got tense in the House later when Khalil Tahir Sindhu of the PML-N criticised the PTI government for its inability to control corona due to which the death toll was on a constant rise. He said the government's ambiguous policy over lockdown exposed its vision and added that making a qurantine at Expo Center, Lahore instead of preferring private medical centres was to earn money, not to protect the citizens.

Syed Yawar Abbas Bokhari, the PTI legislator from Attock who is also the Chairman of PAC-2 while responding to Khalil Tahir Sindhu stated that the health minister was quite patiently handling the young doctors. He said they neither had any worth nor performance but trying to blackmail the government.

They are ill mannered and use bad language against the government,” he said. His remarks by Syed Yawar Bokhari caused uproar in the House and the Opposition boycotted the proceedings.

After the Opposition had staged the walkout, only 13 members of the government were left in the House. During the debate over Health, Heath Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said the confirmed patients in Punjab were 47,382 whereas 31,4975 were suspected. She said Punjab had the capacity of testing 10,000 patients daily and during the last 24 hours, 9179 tests have been done.

PPP leader: PPP Punjab Parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Syed Hassan Murtaza Monday predicted new taxation on farmers by the government in the upcoming budget and stated that it could invite serious reaction from the growers community.

Speaking on a point of order, Syed Hassan Murtaza said that the government should avoid imposing taxes on the government that could be beyond their reach to pay. Mian Shafi Mohammed, who was chairing the session while responding to Syed Hassan Murtaza stated that according to his information, no new tax was being imposed on the farmers.