Press Gallery : PML-N decides to attend assembly session

Provincial govt to seek extension of important ordinances

LAHORE:

Opposition members of the Punjab Assembly will attend Monday’s session despite the announcement of their resignations.

The decision was taken at a consultative meeting of the PML-N, chaired by party secretary general Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday. PML-N Punjab president Rana Sanaullah Khan, former speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal, Chief Whip Khalil Tahir Sindhu, Samiullah Khan, Malik Waris Kalu and Malik Nadeem Kamran were among those who attended the meeting.

It was decided that party MPAs Samiullah Khan and Malik Nadeem Kamran will also attend the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee chaired by the speaker and the party will express its opinion on the agenda of the session.

The matter of the issuance of the production orders of Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz will also be raised. The production orders were not issue in the last session of the assembly.

According to opposition sources, this session of the Punjab Assembly will also be tumultuous. The opposition will protest forcefully in the assembly.

The government needs to legislate or extend the term of some ordinances, for which the session has been convened on a summary of the provincial law and parliamentary affairs department.

The provincial government had issued the Punjab Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control Amendment Ordinance 2020 on October 18 and it lapsed on December 16. The ordinance was also presented in the House on October 12 but it could not be approved due to the commotion by the opposition, nor was a resolution passed to extend the term of the ordinance.

Many government measures regarding the coronavirus pandemic have become ineffective with the expiry of the ordinance.

The Sugar Factories Control Amendment Ordinance 2020, issued on September 24 to overcome the sugar crisis, is also set to lapse on December 22, while the second Sugar Factories Control Amendment Ordinance 2020 will also lapse on January 12. Both the ordinances are very important with regard to ending the sugar crisis. If they lapse, the steps taken to end the crisis will become ineffective.

The Sugar Mills Association is already protesting against the ordinances and demanding withdrawal of amendments to the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950. A delegation led by Sugar Mills Association Punjab President Zaka Ashraf has also met Prime Minister Imran Khan, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Adviser Shehzad Akbar on the issue. The delegation also met Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and demanded withdrawal of the amendments.

Similarly, the Punjab Board of Technical Education Amendment Ordinance 2012 will lapse on December 31. It will also be presented in the assembly session beginning on Monday.

A total of seven ordinances have been issued, which require the approval of the Punjab Assembly. They also include the Punjab Local Government Amendment Ordinance 2020, The Companies Profit Amendment Ordinance 2020 and the Punjab Overseas Commission Ordinance 2020.

The situation has arisen due to protest by the opposition in the last session of the assembly. Opposition members had protested against the non-issuance of production order of Hamza Shehbaz and the filing of cases against their colleagues and arrests of activists on the occasion of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz’s appearance before NAB officials, due to which the session was adjourned for an indefinite period and the pending legislative process in the House was stopped. Now an emergency session of the Punjab Assembly has been convened to complete the legislative process.

The session is likely to continue for two or three days.

Yawar Bukhari, Chairman of the Punjab Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee II, has been made a Minister. Despite this, he did not relinquish the post of chairperson of the committee. He chaired a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Friday.

The rules of the Punjab Assembly are silent on the issue but this is the first time that a minister has also retained the post of chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Mukhtar Bherth, who was chairman of the Public Accounts Committee II, was also made a minister in 2017 and he not resign from the earlier post but never attended a meeting. In his place, senior lawmaker Mian Tariq Mehmood presided over a meeting.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2020.