Uproar in PA over allegations against Maryam

Punjab Assembly members from the treasury and opposition benches came at loggerheads on Thursday after Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Dr Yasmin Rashid said PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz wanted to block the health insurance card scheme.

Although the weather outside the assembly was chilly, the political temperature rose during the question answer session while Dr Rashid was responding to a PML-N lawmaker who had asked why the government had not made a policy allowing heart patients to benefit from costly medicines instead of only cheap ones in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).

The minister said there were some technicalities but appropriate measures had been taken to improve procurement.

She said she had heard that Maryam Nawaz wanted to block the health card. This irked the PML-N camp. MPAs Azma Zahid Bukhari, Rabia Naseem Faruqi and Tariq Masih Gill stood up to defend Maryam Nawaz.

They said the remarks were not relevant to the question and there were also several audio clips related to former prime minister Imran Khan.

The minister claimed that the prevailing circumstances were the result of PML-N’s flawed policies.

Azma Bukhari asked the minister to respond first about desecration of corpses in the Nishtar Hospital.

Slogans were also chanted from the PML-N benches about the issue.

PML-N's Khalil Tahir Sindhu and Speaker Muhammad Sibtain Khan tried to pacify the situation but the opposition party's women lawmakers asked why Maryam's name had been mentioned.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2022.