Punjab Assembly: ‘Sharifs’ liabilities a burden on economy’

Opposition leader says Sharif brothers should return their bank loans.

LAHORE: Speaking on a point of order, opposition leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, during a session of the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday said that the Sharif brothers should return their bank loans. He said if loans borrowed from the National Bank in 1993 were returned, the country’s economy would get much needed boost.

He said the courts were hearing cases involving several ‘economic crimes’ of the Punjab chief minister’s family.

“If the Ittefaq Group pays up the disputed power bills, Wapda will stand on its feet again,” he continued. “If the stolen railway scrap [allegedly used at the Ittefaq] is recovered, more than half of our non-functional trains can be operated.”

He said that there was no bank in the country from which the Sharif family had not borrowed.  “The banks were offered land to settle the loan but it was not worth the money they insisted it was.”

The banks, he said, are still waiting for the money to be returned. He said the cased against Sharifs had been initiated by the banks and not political rivals. He also said that Nawaz Sharif had entered politics under the ‘facilitation’ of General Ziaul Haq.

Question hour

Answering question regarding the Housing and Urban Development Department, Parliamentary Secretary Zafar Iqbal Nagra said that the Punjab government had approved Rs50 million for the construction and beautification of the road from Chandni Chowk to Mureed Chowk.

He said that the project will be completed by 2012. MPA Naveed Anjum raised a question about the powers of the Town Municipal Authority (TMA) regarding the approval of housing societies. Nagra replied that the TMA could allot up to 20 acres to a housing society. Anjum then said several housing societies had been developed on more than 25 acres each. He said that the TMA had also approved several housing societies that were not registered with the Lahore Development Authority. He asked the speaker to direct the authority concerned to seal the sale-and-purchase records in such housing societies and write a letter to the commissioner to bring the issue to his notice.  Narga said that a notice warning the public about illegal housing schemes had been published in the newspapers.

The speaker, nonetheless, directed the parliamentary secretary to write a letter to the commissioner on Wednesday (today) and update the house in this regard. Nagra’s late arrival for the session caused the speaker to take up the adjournment motions before the question hour.

MPA Mohsin Leghari objected to this calling it a violation of the Constitution.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Nagra was stranded in traffic and could not make it in time. He said that when a speaker ordered for the motions to be taken up, the agenda stand automatically suspended, adding, that the decision was in accordance with the law.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th,  2011.