PPP files motion against ‘unelected ministers’

Gondal alleges chairmen of all abolished task forces still withdrawing salaries.

LAHORE:

PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly, Major (retired) Zulfiqar Ali Gondal, on Saturday, submitted a privilege motion against the chief minister over his decision to assign two cabinet portfolios to unelected advisers.

The motion reads that the action is “a clear violation of the privilege of the House.”

Accompanied by Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, Raja Riaz, Gondal told The Express Tribune that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had shown a lack of confidence in elected members, even those belonging to his own party, by assigning two cabinet portfolios to unelected members.

Begum Zakia Shahnawaz was recently assigned the portfolio of Population Welfare Department and Raja Ishfaq Sarwar that of Cooperatives Department.

“Only elected members of the House can be given cabinet portfolios. Chief minister’s advisers, who have not been elected by the people have no right to hold portfolios,” Gondal objected. He said that the PPP did not have any objection to senior adviser Sirdar Zulfiqar Khosa keeping the portfolio of the Finance Department because he was an elected representative. However, he added that the law did not recognise advisers and special assistants as part of the cabinet and therefore, they could not sit in on cabinet meetings.

The privilege motion has been filed under Chapter X of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly. If the speaker accepts the motion, it will be made part of the agenda and Gondal will be given the opportunity to speak on this motion. It will then be sent it to a standing committee, which will conduct a probe. After the probe, the committee will send its findings to the department concerned, the S&GAD in this case. The department can either cancel the original notification it issued or defend it. He added that his intention was to raise the issue that the Punjab CM had violated rules and ethics of the assembly.

Gondal also told The Tribune that the PPP would file another privilege motion, also against the CM, in the near future. “Sharif told the House that the Punjab government had abolished all task forces. But that is not true. Chairmen of the ‘abolished’ task forces are still withdrawing salaries and enjoying their perks,” Gondal said. The PPP parliamentary leader named Samiullah, the Tandooor Programme incharge in Bahawalpur, as a person who was still drawing his salary.

Raja Riaz also talked to the reporters afterwards and said that the PPP would force Shahbaz Sharif to regularly attend the session and answer members’ questions. Criticising Sharif’s way of running the province, Riaz said, “Shahbaz’s style is like that of a Mughal emperor. He also violates the constitution by hardly ever calling a cabinet meeting and not attending the assembly sessions.”

Riaz said that Sharif’s assigning cabinet portfolios to advisers showed that he did not even trust PML-N MPAs. “It is unethical, illegal and a cheap tactic to ignore the elected representatives in a democracy,” he stated.

The PPP leader assured the chief minister of the party’s unconditional support “but only if he disowns the Unification Bloc. We will help him secure a vote of confidence because PPP wants the politics of reconciliation to continue.”

He also advised Sharif to focus on the Punjab instead of issuing warnings to the federal government. “Almost everybody is out on the street protesting against the Punjab government. The reality of CM’s claims of good governance can be seen in the BISE’s failure to issue roll number slips to matriculation students, whose exams start on Monday,” Riaz said. “It’s time Shahbaz Sharif ended his drama and stopped calling himself the servant of Punjab,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2011.