The resolution demanded that the fifth member of the Irsa board should be selected from a neutral territory, Islamabad or Azad Kashmir.
MPA Mohsin Leghari presented the resolution, calling for restructuring the authority to preempt a major dispute on the distribution of water among the provinces. He said that the fifth member of the Irsa should not be from any of the provinces. Minister for Law Rana Sanaullah said that the practice of denying the Punjab its due share of water had started when General (retd) Pervez Musharraf appointed a Sindhi as the fifth member of the authority. “The people who now call for restructuring the Irsa had supported the General,” said Sanaullah. His assertions were greeted with calls of ‘Shame! Shame!’ To this, Sanaullah said , however, that he would not oppose the resolution after which it was passed with a unanimous vote.
Another unanimous resolution demanded that the federal government end gas closures in Punjab’s industrial areas.
The resolution, moved by Khawaja Muhammad Islam, stated that thousands of factories and industrial units had been forced to close down due to gas load shedding and hundreds of thousands of workers had lost their jobs. He said that this had also resulted in the loss of billions of rupees in tax collections. The resolution called upon the federal government to take immediate steps to reduce gas load shedding in the province.
The initial draft of the resolution had included a clause protesting against the discrimination meted out to the Punjab and said that there was no load shedding in the other provinces. Senior minister Raja Riaz Ahmed objected to this saying that the federal government was not discriminating against the province. He said that Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkwa and Balochistan were also experiencing gas load shedding. He said that instead of criticising the federal government and other provinces, the Punjab should demand more gas for itself. Ahmed said that he would only vote to pass the draft if the clause criticising the federal government was removed. The mover said that he was deeply saddened by Minister Ahmed’s criticism of the draft. He said that federal policies were destroying the industries in Faisalabad. Islam said that there should be equitable load shedding in all the provinces of Pakistan. The acting Speaker, Rana Mashood, advised Islam to remove the clause criticising the federal government and other provinces and table it afresh, which Islam did. The amended draft was passed unanimously.
The Assembly unanimously passed a resolution making the construction of footpaths along all main roads in cities in the province compulsory. The resolution was moved by MPA Naseer Ahmad.
MPA Samina Khawar Hayat moved an adjournment motion and informed the House of a gang rape in Chichawatni. She said that two women had been held against their will for three months during which they were gang raped repeatedly. Sanaullah said that a case has been registered and the police were conducting raids to arrest them. Hayat also called for the provision of separate buses for women commuters in addition to segregation in all buses. Rana Sanaullah said that there was no need for separate buses for women.
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, while answering a question about the increase in crime rate told the House that the federal government was not cooperating with the Punjab government. Sanaullah said that the provincial government had requested the interior minister for providing phone locators to the Punjab government or allow the province to import them but thus had yet to happen.
“Terrorists keep in touch with their leaders in North and South Waziristan. That’s why the technology is necessary for Punjab’s law enforcement agencies,” the minister told the House.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2011.
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