Punjab Assembly: MPAs call on Centre to share loans with businesses

House passes two bills, three resolutions.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Assembly passed two bills and three resolutions on Tuesday, a private members’ day when the three main parties in the House cooperated for a change to let the proceedings run smoothly, with an eye on upcoming Senate elections.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the PML-Quaid (PML-Q) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have reached an agreement on the 12 Senate seats the 371 MPAs in the House are to elect, though Mohsin Leghari’s (PML-Q) decision to run for a seat has scuppered their plan to have the elections unopposed.

The members demonstrated an almost unprecedented camaraderie on Tuesday, as opposition members sat on treasury seats and treasury members sat on opposition benches and chatted with each other.

Parliamentary Secretary for Excise and Taxation Ajasam Sharif replied to questions about his department during question hour and there were few disruptions or supplementary questions. The sitting began almost an hour late at 10:52am.

Resolutions

Six resolutions were on the agenda of the house on Tuesday. Ziaullah Shah of the PML-N moved a resolution on graveyards. He called for the construction of boundary walls at all graveyards, and a halt to theft and the practice of black magic in graveyards. His resolution was passed unanimously.

Malik Javed Iqbal Awan of the PML-N proposed that Nowshera city in the Soon Valley, Khushab district, be declared a tehsil. The resolution was passed unanimously.

Sheikh Alauddin of the Unification Bloc proposed that commercial banks be forced to give half of the loans that they give to the federal government to the trade, industry or agriculture sectors instead. He said that the federal government had borrowed Rs3 trillion from commercial banks. He said each bank earned an average of Rs22 billion in profits per year. He said that lending to the federal government had become an easy profit avenue for banks. He said that the banks should be made to issue loans to trade, industry or agriculture instead of the federal government as this would be a more productive use of the money. However, he said he doubted the federal government would stop seeking loans, “as this would halt their illegal extra expenditures”.

Opposition members raised objections, saying that rich and influential people could get trade, industry or agriculture loans and then flee the country or have them written off, as had happened in the past.

The house passed the resolution with a majority.

Nighat Nasir Sheikh of the PML-N proposed that graduates of public medical colleges be forced to serve for a minimum of five years in Pakistan. She said students should be required to sign an affidavit at their admission to medical school stating that they would serve in Pakistan for five years.

This would remove the shortage of doctors in the country, she said. Sajida Meer of the PPP objected that this would discourage healthcare professionals. The resolution was rejected by a majority of members.

Major (r) Zulfiqar Gondal of the PPP moved a resolution calling on the House to urge the federal government to ensure that all medicines in the country are labelled and advertised with their generic names.

He said that if all medicines were only sold under generic names, the Punjab Institute of Cardiology tragedy would not have happened. He alleged that MNA Hamza Shahbaz, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s son, was involved in “the fake medicines business”. The resolution was rejected with a majority.

Sameena Khawar Hayat of the PML-Q proposed that special education centres be set up at each tehsil for destitute and neglected children. The resolution was not voted on as Amna Buttar of the PPP pointed out the quorum and the chairman of the house adjourned the session at 1:45pm.

Earlier, the House had unanimously passed two private bills seeking amendments in the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Privileges Act 1972.

Chaudhry Aamir Sultan Cheema of the PML-Q moved the PA of the Punjab Privileges Amendment Bill 2008, to enable MPAs to visit child protection institutions in their constituencies and to submit reports on them to the minister concerned.

Chaudhry Muhammad Asadullah moved the PA of the Punjab Privileges Amendment Bill 2009, under which the penalty for causing a disturbance on PA premises was raised from Rs1,000 (set in 1972) to Rs20,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th, 2012.