Sohna, Sanaullah see each other at fault

Labour Minister vows to keep standing for the duration of the session.

LAHORE: The Labour Minister, Ashraf Sohna, vowed,during the Punjab Assembly session on Friday, to keep standing for the duration of the session and said that he would follow Rana Sanaullah afterwards.

Sohna’s vows were a reaction to the law minister’s refusal to “realise his mistake”. Though the Speaker urged Sanaullah to apologise to the labour minister, Sanaullah said that he hadn’t given offence and would not apologise.

“He should be let standing if he wishes to. It may even be good for the labour minister’s health,” Sanaullah said.

The aforementioned exchange came after Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Labour Minister Malik Ashraf Sohna locked horns on an issue related to the grant of autonomy and formation of board of governors in 26 colleges of the Punjab.

Pakistan Muslim League -Q MPA Amna Ulfat told the Speaker that representatives of teachers’ association were waiting to meet with the education minister and secretaries concerned as promised by the law minister on Thursday.

On Thursday, the Speaker had sent a committee consisting Human Rights Minister Kamran Michael, Labour Minster Ashraf Sohna, MPA Amna Ulfat and another member to talk to the students and teachers who were protesting outside the Punjab Assembly.

The committee, after talking to the protesters, informed the Speaker that the protesters wanted to discuss their apprehensions with the authorities concerned, regarding the formation of boards of governors. Upon this, Rana Sanaullah had assured the house he would arrange a meeting between the representatives and the relevant minister and secretaries concerned.

When Amna Ulfat raised the point on Friday, Rana Sanaullah said that he had already met with the teachers and said that Ulfat had highlighted the issue “just for the media attention”.

At this point the labour minister stood up and said that the law minister had insulted the committee formed by the Speaker with his remarks.

Sohna said, “The law minister cannot stop any member from expressing his or her views. I myself am against the constitution of boards of governors in 26 colleges and fear this will result in fee raises and deprive the poor of quality education. Such important decisions should have been taken with the consent of the house,” he said.  Rana Sanaullah responded, saying that he had not stopped anyone from expressing their views, “I have just expressed my own views.”

The situation was resolved amicably however. Sohna poked fun at Sanaullah saying that realising a mistake and acknowledging it were two different things and that he felt sorry that the law minister had done neither.

Sohna sat down after a while and Sanaullah didn’t raise any objections.

Legislators warned:

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal issued a warning to legislators using ‘unparliamentarily’ words in the House.

The legislators were warned when Dr Samia Amjad of PML-Q called Sheikh Alauddin of PML-Q Forward Bloc a ‘turn coat’.

Alauddin in response called Dr Amjad ‘shameless’.

This resulted in an exchange of harsh words from the two sides and it took a while before the Speaker could restore order.

The Speaker said that he would be forced to take stern action if the members continued using such ‘inappropriate’ language.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2010.