Assembly session: Opposition too should get funds, says Mehmoodur Rasheed

Leader of the opposition urges the CM to visit the assembly more often

LAHORE: Opposition lawmakers are not being given development funds, Leader of the Opposition in Provincial Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said on Wednesday.

He was speaking during a session also attended by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

“I welcome the Leader of the House in the assembly. I believe if he continues to come here, the performance of many departments will improve. Opposition members are not being given development funds. Those who lost in the general elections against us are being showered with funds to insult us. We are not begging. We are asking for our right. I remind the Leader of the House of his speech after taking oath. He had then promised to take the Opposition along. This has not happened,” he said.

Rasheed said that the Leader of the House should treat all parliamentarians the same. “Opposition members also have the people’s mandate. It should be respected,” he said.

He said the government was free to build bridges and run buses. “However, it should also take notice of the situation in Mayo Hospital, the largest public sector hospital in the province, which does not have an MRI machine. Ten million children in the Punjab are out of schools,” he said.

Replying to the points raised by Rasheed, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the government had not issued any directives for provision of funds to treasury MPAs. “No member can be forced to come to the House. There is no such provision in the rules. The government asks the MPAs for their views about development projects and they give their priorities,” he said.

The minister said that Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and Pakistan People’s Party members had met chief minister in Committee Room and discussed the provision of funds. “I personally requested the CM to give them development funds. However, the CM said that if we do not give funds to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members, it will create an impression that we are trying to divide the Opposition. If Opposition members identify development schemes, funds can be released for them,” he said. The minister said that Rasheed could discuss the matter with him. “We treat the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly much better than the PTI treats its counterparts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said. Earlier, the House offered fateha for Nawabzada Iqbal Mehdi, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA.

Parliamentary Secretary Asgher Ali Mandaa answered questions about the Services and General Administration Department. Speaker Rana Iqbal directed him to hold an inquiry into why answers had not been provided by the department to several questions.

Rasheed and government spokesman Zaeem Hussain Qadri exchanged hot words during the session. During the discussion on annual report of the Punjab Pension Funds, opposition members raised the issue of corruption. Qadri defended the government. Rasheed took a jibe at him by suggesting that he should be made a minister.

Qadri demanded that the Leader of the Opposition apologise to him. However, the speaker said that Rasheed had not used any unparliamentary words. “He [Zaeem Qadri] defends the government well. I wanted him to be sworn as a minister. However, if he does not want this, I take my words back,” he said.

The session was adjourned till Thursday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2016.