Law minister’s remarks cause rumpus in PA

Sanaullah says Imran, Qadri working on Altaf’s agenda

LAHORE: The Provincial Assembly witnessed a heated argument on Tuesday after Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said in a veiled reference to Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri that they had the same agenda as Altaf Hussain.

Without naming anyone, the law minister said that ‘two people in the Punjab’ were inciting hatred and destabilising the country as part of the agenda pursued by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder.



Responding to law minister’s remarks, opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rashid said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan would hold all corrupt people accountable. Following a heated argument between the two, Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal intervened.

The argument picked up after Rashid asked the law minister to withdraw his remarks about demolition of MQM’s offices in Karachi. Instead of appreciating Rangers’ role in the Karachi operation, he said, the law minister was criticising the paramilitary force for demolishing the offices built by some ‘traitors’ on illegally occupied land. He said the interior minister had praised the Karachi operation, but the Punjab law minister was criticising it. He said this showed that there were two opinions within the government on the operation. He said, “We condemn his remarks. They amount to supporting the terrorists.”

The law minister said that he as well as everyone else had condemned Hussain’s remarks, but there should be nothing about the operation that would allow criminals to claim victimhood. “He managed to do in a few minutes what some other anti-state elements couldn’t do in years, but this matter should be handled politically,” he said.

The law minister said there was no doubt any longer that the Karachi operation was justified. He said the Sindh chief minister had stated in a televised interview that he had ordered demolition of MQM offices that had been built on encroached land.



Minister for School Education Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan came under fire during the Question Hour when several legislators grilled him over his department’s performance. An argument ensued when Faiza Malik called into question the department’s decision to hand over a number of schools to CARE Foundation. She also made disparaging remarks about a parliamentary committee that had absolved the foundation of various charges in 2008. The remarks were expunged by the speaker.

Malik said that 8,000 schools in the Punjab had been closed. The minister did not respond directly to her remarks, but defended the public-private partnership strategy in general. He said that PEF-partner schools were reporting better results than government schools. He said that private entities were looking after administrative affairs of some schools, which were still working under the Education Department.

Other lawmakers took up issues relating to missing facilities, dangerous school buildings, upgrade of schools and rationalisation of teachers. The minister said that School Education Department’s budget had increased by 400 percent over 10 years. He said that Rs8 billion was spent on providing missing facilities at schools last year and a similar amount was being spent this year. He said that recent recruitment of 38,000 teachers had taken the number of teachers in the province to 336,000. He said that 70,000 more teachers were expected to be hired soon.

Maulana Ghayasuddin expressed his concern at the alleged transfer of government schools to the Ahmadiyya community and organisations associated with it. He said in a fiery speech that such actions would lead to further deterioration in the standards of education. Neither the minister nor the Chair responded to his speech.

The House passed four of the six resolutions on the agenda. These were related to establishment of a WASA in Bahawalpur, ramps for wheelchair users at public transport, cleaning of drains and retrieval of farm land under floodwater in Sargodha.

Issues relating to commercialisation of residential areas in Gulberg and WAPDA Town, establishment of a parliamentary youth caucus, failure of the government to appoint top police officials in Bahawalpur and absence of measures to prevent flooding in Layyah also came under discussion.

The session, which had started with 30 members, ended with less than 10 present in the House. It will now resume on Wednesday morning.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2016.