A day after defeat, opposition stays home

Few MPAs from PML-N’s rival parties show up in the House

LAHORE: A day after PML-N took victory in the NA-120 by-polls, the opposition turned up in very small numbers for the Punjab Assembly session on Monday.

At the same time, some legislators seemed most grateful for Kulsoom Nawaz’s election success. Although the PML-N won a tough election, it was usually outnumbered at assembly sessions as the opposition often managed to point out that the treasury lacked the number of legislators to complete the quorum.



As a result of this, Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan had to adjourn proceedings for five out of six days and only once was the house able to complete items on the agenda. However, it was a different story on Monday.

The session started late at 4.23pm on Monday instead of the scheduled 2pm. Some legislators, including opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, entered the house a few minutes later. However, he also left a few minutes later and the house was left with only a handful of opposition lawmakers.

In the question hour session, an independent candidate from the opposition benches, Ehsan Riaz Fatyana, pointed to the lack of quorum. The house was initially adjourned for five minutes, then 20 minutes and proceedings were finally put off till 10am on Tuesday.

During question hour, opposition legislator Sardar Shahabuddin Khan said the House was being misled as claims of 224 surgeries were conducted at Bhakar’s THQ Hospital. He added not more than 50 surgeries had been conducted at the medical facility.

To this, Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khwaja Imran Nazeer said he would hand down exemplary punishment if the discrepancy was proven. He also ordered the health secretary to probe the matter.

PTI’s Dr Nausheen Hamid asked if it was not wastage of public money that a state-of-the-art trauma centre at Kalar Kahar was turned into a THQ. She said pointed out that even after the installation of sophisticated machinery, the government failed to bring qualified doctors to run it as a trauma center.



In his reply, minister Imran Nazeer said the trauma center had not been finished and the area also had no THQ. He continued that neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons and other staff could not be found despite the fact that the vacant posts had been advertised several times.

He assured the House that the facility would be made functional as soon as possible after removing its deficiencies.

At the same time, several questions were disposed of as the movers from both the treasury and opposition benches were not present during the session.

Also, in a press release, Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani congratulated PML-N leaders and workers over the victory of Kulsoom Nawaz in NA-120. He said the people of the constituency showed their trust in PML-N’s leadership and its performance.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2017.