Punjab Assembly: Unification Bloc ‘followed in Jinnah’s footsteps’

Parliamentary secy twice challenged by treasury colleagues during question hour.

LAHORE:

Unification Bloc in the Punjab Assembly on Friday defended its support for the provincial government by claiming that the political course taken by its members had a respectable precedent in Quaid-i-Azam who had been a member of two political parties for several years.

Responding to chants of ‘lota’, Shaikh Alaud Din said that there was a time when Jinnah was affiliated with Muslim League as well as Congress. He said MA Jinnah had remained a member of both parties from 1913 to 1920. During this period, he said, Jinnah was elected as president of All India Muslim League in 1916 and 1920.

PML-N’s Rana Muhammad Tajammul Hussain demanded that Alauddin take his words back. He said no one should be allowed to compare themselves with Jinnah.

Din said he would prove to the House that Jinnah had been affiliated with two political parties or else all 47 members of the Unification Bloc would resign from their seats.

Din said the Unification Bloc members had not left their parent party, the PML-Q, so the opposition should stop referring to them as turncoats.

This prompted an uproar by the opposition and Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Khan had to adjourn the session till 3pm on Monday.

Earlier during the question hour, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government and Community Development Chaudhry Abdul Razzaq Dhillon was twice corrected by his colleagues on the treasury benches.

Responding to a question about fees charged at parking stands, Dhillon said that Rs10 and Rs5 were the prevalent rates for cars and motorcycles respectively.

PML-N’s Khawja Imran Nazir corrected him and informed the house that the stands at the district courts and at the Lahore High Court were charging Rs20 for a car and Rs10 for a motorcycle.

Nazir said that a Baba Ground near Civil Secretariat was owned by the Punjab Assembly but was being used as a parking stand, without the competent authority’s permission.

Dhillon said FIRs had been registered against several parking stand contractors for overcharging.

To a question by PML-N’s Nighat Nasir Sheikh, Dhillon said 59 of the 159 union councils in Lahore had been provided with water filtration plants.

He added that the installation was underway in 40 more union councils.

However, his colleague PML-N’s Rana Ejaz Ahmed Khan rejected the claim. He said that only 38 union councils in the city had so far been provided with filtration plants.

Dhillon said that federal government was responsible for the delay in the installation of filtration plants. He held that it had so far released Rs4 billion of the total Rs12 billion allocated for the project.

Speaking on a point of order, PPP’s Muhammad Ashraf Sohna said that the provincial government had yet to spend the amount. He demanded a third party evaluation to fix responsibility for delay in the project.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the federal government had awarded contracts for the installation of these plants to lesser known firms. He said these contracts had been given in the range of Rs3 and Rs8 million while the market price for a plant was not more than Rs0.6 million.

Minority members attended the proceedings wearing black bands in protest against the desecration of Holy Quran at Florida, USA.

A privilege motion moved against irrigation secretary was referred to the committee concerned.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2011.