LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly Wednesday witnessed a series of rare things in country’s parliamentary history. First there was a rare walkout by the treasury benches to protest against the attitude of the opposition members, almost unheard of in the parliamentary history. It was followed by another unusual move in which a treasury member pointed out quorum, and that led to another unusual move when deputy speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari prorogued the session sine die, cutting short the scheduled session by few days as quorum could not be completed after several minutes of ringing the bells.
The trouble caused by the events which began when PML-N’s Malik Ahmad Khan, during the debate on price control criticised the PTI leadership for taking extremely anti-people measures in the economic sector which were considered highly unbecoming of a government deeming itself answerable to the people since coming from their votes. He questioned the rationale behind a number of steps by the Prime Minister which, he wondered, could not be believed to have come from an elected PM and looked more of the agenda of world monetary institutions. He said if the PTI had been accusing the policies of its predecessors as the root cause of the entire mess plaguing the country, then why in the first place it took the U-turn from its manifesto not only to adopt the same policies but also surpass the practices of its predecessors to unusual and historic limits. He said if PTI deemed those policies of taking unusual loans from the IMF and the WB as the only solution to country’s problems, then why it failed to produce promised results and provide relief to the masses. He said he believed that masses were being punished and tortured for some unspecified crimes, but the entire blame was being shifted to the previous regimes which had nothing to do with the present economic disasters.
He said despite all blames, previous regimes had not only been building commendable infrastructure in the country but also providing them relief from serious challenges like load shedding, price hike, lawlessness and terrorism. But PTI government had badly failed in producing any positive result despite claiming to have been clean, sincere and capable. The deputy speaker asked Malik Ahmad Khan to sit down since allocated five minutes were over, to which he took exception saying that he was talking about very serious issues that were the root cause of the suffering of the masses. He said those ministers who kept reading out long speeches provided by the bureaucracy were never interrupted but opposition members were cut down even if discussing the root causes of public suffering. He walked out of the House despite that the deputy speaker later asked him to continue while he was leaving the House. Opposition leaders including Samiullah Khan, Khalil Tahir Sindhu and others informed the chair that they had already given the list of four speakers from their side for the debate in which Malik Ahmad Khan was the first, but still he was not allowed to complete his speech. Law Minister Raja Basharat and Aslam Iqbal termed the oppositon’s behavior unjustified to which the opposition walked out of the House.
Mian Aslam Iqbal began making his winding up speech in opposition’s absence and accused them of making fun of the session and proceedings, but the chair sent a minister and a member to bring the opposition back in the House. But after opposition members returned Samiullah Khan objected to the attitude of treasury members and also criticized Mian Aslam Iqbal which led to a chaotic situation as both sides accused each other of not the letting the House function.
Law Minister Raja Basharat while condemning the attitude of opposition members informed the chair that the treasury had been cooperative in the session and called on the request of the opposition, since “we maintained the quorum, have not brought our own agenda and letting them speak their minds, but still their attitude was unacceptable.”
He announced walking out of the House in protest and challenged the opposition to show how they could maintain quorum. While the treasury members were walking out of the House, treasury’s Zainab Umair indicated the lack of quorum.
The chair ordered ringing of bells for several minutes but after which he unexpectedly prorogued the House sine die. Earlier, the government and opposition benches in the Punjab Assembly displayed an unusual unity as they stood unanimous against the federal government’s move to amend the rules and standards of Punjab Food Authority (PFA) for allegedly serving the interests of the multinational companies selling beverage and food items in the country.
Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry, in a rare gesture, supported the adjournment motion by PML-N’s Mian Naseer Ahmad objecting to federal minister for science and technology Fawad Chaudhry’s statement declaring that his government was bringing an amendment to set new standards and rules for the working of PFA. He expressed amazement over federal government’s intentions to legislate on a provincial subject. Mian Naseer Ahmad criticized the federal minister for what he called serving the interests of multinational companies whose beverages had been banned in schools by the Punjab government for preventing students’ health against the looming threats of juvenile diabetics. He informed the House that Fawad had also held a meeting a couple of days back on the issue to chalk out the scope of the proposed legislation within next few days, expressing wonder why a federal minister was bent upon encroaching upon a purely provincial subject.
Minister Samiullah Chaudhry said under the 18th constitutional amendment, the PFA was a provincial subject, asking the deputy speaker to take up the issue with the federal government. PML-N’s Samiullah Khan demanded the chair to suspend the rulers and bring a unanimous resolution asking the federal government to refrain from the unconstitutional legislation.
The deputy speaker agreed with the suggestion, asking the opposition benches to bring a resolution as soon as they wanted, but Law Minister Raja Basharat requested the chair to allow the government a few days’ time so that the matter could be discussed with the Chief Minister and relevant officials, assuring the opposition benches that the government would not go against the interests of the Punjab province. The deputy speaker asked the law minister if he had any reservations against bringing a resolution on the issue since it would not prevent the government from deliberating on the matter. Samiullah Khan said the treasury indulged in delaying tactics, adding that some people were influencing upon the matter for their own interests. Trade and Industries Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal suggested the chair allow some time, adding that that the matter had already been brought before the four chief ministers in the meeting of the Council of Common Interests, and assured the chair that Punjab would not let go of its interests.
Earlier, an independent member Jugnu Mohsin, on a point of order, referred to the invitation by High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Pakistani businessmen to invest in his country which had a growth rate of 8.5 per cent. She requested the chair to hold debate on the reasons why Pakistani businessmen in the recent years had already been shifting their investments to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and the causes that led to such a poor state of affairs where Pakistan, which sometime back was considered an industrial tiger and Bangladesh was considered as a minnow in this sector, reversed their roles. She emphasised that business-friendly policies in Bangladesh, as explained by country’s former prime minister to a business delegation, were none other than the rule of law. She said the BD PM had assured the businessmen whether she would continue after next elections or some other PM came to office, the policies and guarantees to the investors would never be reversed or amended, adding that the new prime minister honored the policies and promises made to the investors by the previous PM.
Minister Aslam Iqbal opposed the request saying foreign affairs was a federal subject, while another minister, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, said many Pakistani businessmen had to return from Bangladesh after suffering huge losses. Aslam Iqbal said his government was improving business-friendly atmosphere as the World Bank has improved the country’s rating on an investment favorable atmosphere index from 138 to 108.
He said government’ reforms had invited the attention of 18 investors who applied for setting up large cement factories in the country.
