The opposition in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday demanded Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to appear in the house to answer the queries of lawmakers, saying that his cabinet members don’t take any interest in the business of the house.
During the question-hour on Wednesday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Samiullah Khan criticised the government, as he said that the departments gave the answers of lawmakers’ queries very late and therefore the CM should himself come to the house for this purpose.
“It takes one to two years for getting the answers from different departments in this august house,” the PML-N lawmaker said, adding that the chief minister, who took votes from the people, must give answers to the questions of the people in this house.
He also criticised the absence of ministers from the house. “The deputy speaker gave a ruling that ministers should remain present in the house to answer the queries related to their department’s business, but his ruling was ignored by the ministers. The ministers for school education, auqaf, environment, taxation and housing are absent from the house despite the ruling of the deputy speaker,” said the PML-N lawmaker.
The chief minister should himself come to the house to show the performance of his ministers, the opposition demanded.
Earlier, the session started after a delay of more than two hours from its scheduled time under the chair of Panel of Chairmen Mian Shafi.
Punjab Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raja Basharat, who also recently took additional charge of Food Department, gave replies to the queries of lawmakers related to food. He said the minimum price of sugarcane in the province was determined in consultation with the Punjab Sugar Cane Control Board. He said that Rs1.5 per 40 kilogrammes of sugar cess was collected each from landlords and mill owners from sugar mills, adding that an amount of more than Rs4.54 billion was received from August 2018 to July 2021.
The law minister said that sugar cess was spent on construction and repair of broken roads in the respective area.
“From the year 2018 till now, Rs1.21 billion of sugar cess has been given to the districts for development works,” he added. He further informed the house that last year the distribution of gunny bags for procurement of wheat was kept open and it was provided to every landlord as per demand.
He said that effective measures were being taken to protect the wheat lying in the warehouses. Raja Basharat said that 214 officers were working in Lahore under Punjab Food Authority and 21 government vehicles were being used in field operations. He said that six lacto machines of the Punjab Food Authority in Lahore checked up to 300 milk carrying vehicles a day.
“There are 33 flour mills registered in Lahore and the rest are unregistered. According to the policy, each registered mill is provided 300kg wheat daily at a rate fixed by the Punjab cabinet, while the price of flour was fixed by the deputy commissioner in consultation with the mill owners,” he added.
The house also held general discussion on agriculture. The session was later adjourned to meet again on Friday morning.
