Development funds: Every PPP Punjab MPA will get Rs70 million: Gilani

Several MPAs boycott meeting with the prime minister.

LAHORE: The prime minister on Saturday directed the federal finance minister to release Rs70 million each for PPP MPAs in the Punjab.

The announcement came after Yousaf Raza Gilani met with the party’s parliamentarians in the Punjab at Governor’s House.

The MPAs had been asking the federal government to release development funds for their constituencies shortly after the PPP quit the Punjab government coalition early this year.

PPP has 106 members in the Punjab Assembly who had been complaining that the Punjab government had blocked the release of development funds for their constituencies. The issue was raised by the leader of opposition Raja Riaz in the Punjab Assembly many times. PPP MPAs had then asked the federal government to give them funds, a demand that some of them say was ignored until Saturday.

A PPP member told The Express Tribune that Prime Minister Gilani had agreed to meet with Punjab parliamentarians after the parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Major (retd) Zulfiqar Gondal told the PM that party members were contemplating joining other political parties if he did not address their complaints.

Sources privy to the meeting between the PM and the disgruntled party members told The Tribune that the proceedings of the meeting are “heated”. The party members gave Gilani a list of demands, the member said. The PM assured the Punjab parliamentarians that the federal government will help them in resolving all issues in their constituencies.

Gilani also promised PPP members that their demand for five prohibited weapons licences and 10 permitted weapons licences, for each PPP MPA, will be considered. According to the party member, Gilani also announced lifting the ban on recruitment across the country.However, some PPP members boycotted the meeting. Among them was an MPA from Multan: Dr Akhtar Malik.

Dr Akhtar Malik told The Tribune, “It was useless to attend the meeting chaired by Gilani because he was the one who blocked the release of funds in Multan.” He said that around 15 PPP members had boycotted the meeting. Malik said that the absence of a large number of PPP MPAs from meeting clearly indicated that “there exists a PPP forward bloc in the Punjab Assembly”.

Deputy parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Shaukat Mehmood Basra said that 104 PPP MPAs attended the meeting.

Uzma Bukhari, a PPP MPA, separately met with the prime minister on Saturday. Bukhari told Gilani that someone had stolen a few pictures of hers, photoshopped them and posted them on a website, with “obnoxious remarks”. Bukhari told the PM that she had asked the Pemra chairman to look into the matter but he had ignored her. The MPA requested the prime minister to order prompt action otherwise she would quit the party. Gilani told Bukhari that the relevant authority was the FIA Cyber Crime Wing. PM then directed interior minister to look into the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2011.