Rare show of unity: Lawmakers give themselves a pay raise

House also passes Punjab Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill

LAHORE:

Lawmakers gave themselves a salary raise on Friday by unanimously passing the Punjab Public Representatives’ Laws (Amendment) Bill of 2016.

Speaking at the occasion, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah thanked the opposition for supporting the Treasury in getting the bill passed in the House. Taking a jibe at the opposition, he said it wouldn’t have been possible to pass the bill if opposition members, in particular those from the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), had not been in agreement (‘muk muka’) with the government. The statement was received with cheers from the Treasury benches.

“They [Opposition] support us when it’s in their own interest but hold protests against public welfare projects,” he said.

Sanaullah said the chief minister had been reluctant to table the bill initially. However, he said, it was tabled after the opposition assured its unanimous support for the bill.

The law minister said the pay raise would be applicable only to lawmakers. The bill would not be applicable to the chief minister, his cabinet, the speaker or the deputy speaker, he said.

The House also passed Punjab Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill with an amendment introduced by the Opposition.

The bill entitles pregnant women to a six-week break from work to deliver the baby. It also requires employers of such women to not assign them any task (of arduous nature or one that requires long hours of standing) that is likely to have an adverse affect on their health for a period of a month before the expected date of delivery.

Speaking on a point of order, Leader of the Opposition Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed said the government was diverting funds from projects planned for southern districts to the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project.

Addressing the press before the beginning of the session, the law minister dismissed suggestions that Islamic State (Da’ish) was organised in the province. He said the civil and the military leaderships were both carefully monitoring the province. He said an operation was underway against banned militant organisations. He said the government had banned lectures in universities by people whose names were on the Fourth Schedule. On the Opposition’s protests against the OMLT project, he said it was just propaganda. He said PML-Q leader Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi used to refer to the Metro Bus Service as Jangla Bus. However, he said, thousands of people were using the bus service to travel across the city every day. Sanaullah said there was no truth to the allegations leveled against him by PTI chief Imran Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2016.