Punjab Assembly: Lawmakers debate Maryam Nawaz’s engagements

Opposition walks out; 10 bills introduced, one passed.

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly members spent a better part of Wednesday discussing whether it was okay or not for Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, to address public gatherings, comprising mostly students. 

The opposition demanded that the Punjab government put an “immediate stop” to its efforts to launch Maryam Nawaz’s political career at educational institutions “where she presented her father’s party manifesto on the expenditure of the Education Department”, as one member put it.

“The School Education Department and Higher Education Department are forcing prestigious public educational institutions to host Maryam so she can promote Nawaz’s agenda,” alleged PPP’s Azma Bukhari speaking on a point of order.

Maryam Nawaz recently addressed two public gatherings in Lahore. First she addressed a women’s convention at Alhamra and later spoke at the Fatima Jinnah Medical College.

Students are being forced to attend the functions, Bukhari said. “The PML-N feels so threatened by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) popularity that it has ‘deployed’ Nawaz Sharif’s daughter to attract the youth vote, at the cost of their education,” the PPP member said.

At this PML-N’s Zaeem Hussain Qadri said that Maryam had been invited to the events by unions of the concerned institutions. “It is the unions’ right to invite a political figure to an event. An emerging leader has to accept such invitations,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz got up and said that the Punjab government should not force educational institutions to invite any politician. He said that Maryam should have addressed the party’s women members in Dhobi Ghat, Faisalabad, and Mochi Darwaza, Lahore.

“If the PML-N is having trouble in gathering enough people for Maryam’s pubic meetings after Imran Khan’s October 30 rally, the PPP will assemble a large gathering for Maryam to address,” the opposition leader said. He termed Maryam’s address at public institutions “illegal”.

Qadri retaliated by saying that President Zardari had “turned the presidency into a party secretariat”. He said that the governor had also converted Governor’s House into a “committee room” where PPP members hatch conspiracies against the Punjab government.  “That is illegal,” said the PML-N member adding that the PPP should criticise its co-chairman’s activities instead of finding fault with the unions.

The debate ended with the opposition walking out after Riaz objected to ministers’ absence. “First it was the chief minister who did not attend the sessions. Now the law minister is also not present,” he said. Riaz said that government ministers were not serious about the House proceedings or willing to reply to their point of orders.

The session started at 11:55am, two hours later than the scheduled time. Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Khan presided over the day’s proceedings.

The opposition pointed out the quorum twice but treasury benches met the attendance requirement. The session was adjourned till 10am on Thursday.

Legislation

Two bills – The Punjab Conferment of Proprietary Rights on Occupancy Tenants and Muqarraridars Bill 2011 and The Hindu Disposition of Property Bill 2011 – were presented in the House for passage.

The members passed the amendments of Standing Committee on Revenue, Relief and Consolidation regarding The Hindu Disposition of Property (Amendment) Bill 2011. The committee had suggested amendments to The Hindu Disposition of Property Act 1916.

The Punjab Conferment of Proprietary Rights on Occupancy Tenants and Muqarraridars Bill 2011 was kept pending.

Question Hour

Parliamentary Secretary for Food Saeed Mughal answered the members’ questions about the Food Department.

Many members asked if the government was taking any action against the sugar mills which had withheld the farmers’ cheques. Minister for Zakat and Ushr Malik Nadeem Kamran – who spoke on behalf of Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah – said that the government had registered 44 FIRs against sugar mills for not paying farmers. “Two mills have also been sealed,” he said. Mashhood, on the request of Zulfiqar Gondal, asked the business advisory committee to decide on Thursday whether or not a committee should be formed to check the sugar crisis.

10 bills introduced

The bills that were introduced in the House on Wednesday include:

The Walled City of Lahore Bill 2011

The Punjab Local Government Second Amendment Bill 2011

The Ghazi University DG Khan Bill

The Punjab Civil Servants Amendment Bill

The Provincial Motor Vehicles Bill

The Punjab Public Defender Service Act 2007 Bill 2011

The Punjab Employee Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Bill 2011

The Hindu Gains of Learning Bill 2011

The Settlement Commissioners Bill 2011 and

The Evacuee Property and Displaced Persons Laws Bill 2011

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2011.