The opposition on Monday submitted a requisition to convene a session of the Punjab Assembly as the members of provincial assembly (MPAs) want to discuss the Murree tragedy in which at least 22 people died after being stranded in their cars due to a disastrous snowstorm.
As per details, the requisition to convene the session was submitted on opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz’s direction to discuss three burning issues. The death of innocent people in Murree, the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP’s) foreign funding report and fertilizer shortage for farmers in Punjab were the issues mentioned in the requisition, a copy of which is available with Minute Mirror.
According to the rules of business of the Punjab Assembly, the speaker is bound to convene the session within 14 days of the requisition’s submission, signed by a quarter of the house members. It must be noted that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has 165 of the 371 members in the house, while only 93 MPAs would be required to submit the requisition.
Meanwhile, Hamza on Monday visited the residence of those who lost their lives in the Murree incident.
“There was no machinery used in Murree while the administration, chief minister and prime minister were in deep slumber on the tragic day,” Hamza said, while talking to journalists after visiting the residence of the deceased in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat area.
Hamza was of the view that state of the art machinery was imported for Murree under the PML-N government, but wondered why the machinery was not deployed for the people this time. He questioned why the government didn’t take any action when a 100,000 vehicles entered Murree in just a few hours.
He furthered that there were certain rules and regulations for Murree prepared by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s government earlier, but the incumbent rulers kept sleeping when the incident took place.
“We have submitted the requisition to convene the session of Punjab Assembly where we’ll demand a judicial inquiry to probe the negligence of the government,” said Hamza. The government got exposed on all the fronts as they failed to control dengue while the masses were unable to bear the burdens of inflation, he said, adding that the only solution to the peoples’ problems was to send the government packing.
Meanwhile, an emergency meeting was presided over by Special Assistant to Chief Minister (SACM) for Information and Tourism Hasaan Khawar to redress administrative concerns at the province’s tourist spots.
The meeting discussed various aspects accountable for the Murree incident and a future action plan was charted out as well. A three-member committee comprising Additional Secretary Tourism Sadaf Zafar, General Manager Operations Asim Raza and Project Manager Waqas Malik was also formed in the wake of the Murree tragedy on the direction of CM Punjab vide an official notification.
The committee would present its recommendations for addressing similar situations in the next 48 hours, while also giving suggestions to alleviate the pressure of throngs of tourists, according to the notification. Rents, hotel registration mechanism, and other concerns would also be addressed by the committee, who would then prepare recommendations accordingly.
A detailed report would also be curated regarding the law that would prevent hotels from overcharging and the status of its effective implementation.
Khawar also sought the committee’s report on recommendations for the implementation of traffic planning during rush season in Murree. He ordered the committee to come up with standard operating procedures (SOPs) to work out a manner in which prompt and effective travel advisories would be issued to tourists, considering weather warnings as brought forth by the meteorological department.
Furthermore, the SACM also asked that all past reports on Murree’s management be furbished from the tourism department, with details about their implementation as well.
The advancement of the Tourism Police Force and the Tourism Authority was a point of discussion at the meeting as well.
