Punjab Assembly: Women MPAs walk out over uplift funds

House echoes with slogans as PPP members raise voice against party’s policy of reconciliation with PML-N.

LAHORE: The house echoed with slogans on Wednesday as PPP women MPAs protested against their party’s policy of reconciliation with the PML-N and being denied discretionary development funds.

The members at one stage walked out to show their lack of confidence.

Led by Minister Neelam Jabbar, the PPP women criticised the government for not allocating development funds for them. Opposition member Samia Amjad joined their cause. She was particularly harsh on the law minister for his ‘sarcastic smiles’ and jibes at the opposition.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah invited them over to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to discuss the matter over a breakfast.

Samuel Kamran of PML-Q rejected the proposal saying, “We do not want to meet the chief minister over breakfast. We want the matter resolved here.”

Speaking on a point of order, PPP’s Saghira Islam said that women members were not being provided funds for the last three years. She said that women MPAs were equal and a part of the house so that ignoring them was unacceptable.

She said that the law minister had promised to issue them funds several times but had always later backed out.

Sanaullah interrupted saying that he had never made any such promise.

He said that according to the financial rules, the development funds were not a member’s right. He said that the members prepared and proposed schemes for works in their constituencies and then funds were released for those schemes.

He reminded that women members had no physical constituencies. During the previous government’s term, he said, the signatures of several women MPAs were obtained and funds were spent in a single district.

“Madam, can you please tell me which constituency do you belong to?” he asked. MPA Amna Ulfat said that it was a shame the law minister did not know that the entire Punjab was her constituency. Given his ignorance, she said, he had no right to be a member of the house. “I suggest that the law minister resign immediately,” she said.

The PPP and PML-Q members then walked out of the house and went and sat in the assembly stairs.

The speaker asked, Provincial Minister Neelam Jabbar to bring them back.

Jabbar said that as political workers, women too had sacrificed for their parties and voters and should be provided funds just as their male colleagues were.

Sajida Mir said that while male members had been given up to Rs40 million, the women MPAs were not given even Rs8 million.

“I submitted my development schemes in Lahore but no funds were released,” she said.

MPA Fouzia Behram said that she had spent funds from her pocket in her constituency without waiting for funds from the government.

“The narrow-minded men on the house seem to be deliberately insulting the women elected on special seats,” she alleged.

Question hour

During the question and answer session, Haji Muhammad Ishaq, the revenue minister, said that according to a Supreme Court ruling the DDOR has the rights to transfer patwaris. He said the government was making foolproof arrangements to curb sales of fake stamp papers.

To a question by MPA Naveed Anjum, the minister said that there were 8,132 licensed stamp paper sellers in the Lahore district.

He told the house that the new stamp papers included modern security features which would bring an end to forgery. He said that instructions had been issued to district officers to form teams to catch vendors selling fake stamp papers.

MPA Muhammad Shafiq Khan asked about the number of patwar houses in Taxila and that whether the patwaris were deployed in all constituencies.  “What about the patwaris present in various tehsils with no work to do?” he added.

Ishaq said that the powerful MNAs in the mentioned constituencies got to decide all the transfers and deployments in their areas.

Dr Samia Amjad got up and named the MNA.

The speaker reprimanded her saying that she had no right to accuse anybody.

Sanaullah said that all MNAs and MPAs had a right to monitor officials in their constituencies and if some official was found to be inefficient, his removal could be recommended.

“It will take sometime to clean the filth spread over the last five years,” he said.

Amjad responded, “If the previous government had spread filth, what has the current government done in the last three years to clean it?”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2011.