Quorum trouble: 3 bills on agenda not tabled

Transport minister absent, parliamentary secretary answers members’ questions.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Assembly session came to a pre-mature end on Thursday for the third time during the current week after quorum was pointed out.

The fourth day of the ongoing session got off to a late start, with Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal in the chair. The session scheduled to start at 10am started at 12:15pm. Seven reports and three bills were to be presented in the House, according to the day’s agenda. The relevant minister was scheduled to answer members’ questions about Transport Department. But for the third consecutive day, the minister concerned did not turn up and a parliamentary secretary had to answer the questions.

The reports – including the Appropriation Accounts of Government of Punjab for 2007-2008, Forest Department 2009-2010, four Punjab government Audit Reports 2010-2011, Annual Report on Observance and Implementation of Principles Policy in relation to the Affairs of Punjab – were presented. However, the three bills –The Provincial Insolvency Bill 2011, The Charitable and Religious Trusts Bill 2011 and The Punjab Conferment of Proprietary Rights on Occupancy Tenants and Muqarraridars Bill 2011 – were not tabled after quorum was pointed out by three PML-Q members.

The tenants’ rights bill was on the agenda Wednesday too. According to the brief of the bill, tenants who made barren land cultivable and have been cultivating it over the years will be able to own the land.

Legislators had asked the chair of the House, Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood, on Wednesday to remove the bill from the agenda and keep it pending because they were not clear about some of the terms used in the bill.

PML-Q’s Mohsin Khan Leghari told The Express Tribune that members from all political parties had discussed the bill with the speaker for about two hours, before the start of business. “There are ambiguities in the bill. It was essential that members understand definitions of different revenue terms before the bill is approved,” he said.

PPP’s Hassan Murtaza, rising on a point of order, demanded that the Punjab government take necessary steps to end the shortage of fertiliser and take action against sugar mills owners who exploit farmers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2011.