Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Wednesday snubbed Agriculture Minister Hussain Jahania Gardezi during the question-hour related to his department as the minister wasn’t well-prepared to answer the queries of the lawmakers.
The absence of secretary agriculture from the House also disturbed the speaker because it was the ruling of the chair that the secretary concerned must be present in the House when the questions related to his department were on the agenda item of the day. As per details, the session of Punjab Assembly started after a delay of three hours with Elahi in the chair.
The session could last only 25 minutes as the speaker pended the question-hour while putting it on hold due to the absence of secretary agriculture. The minister told the speaker that secretary agriculture was out of the country. “We’ll take the questions when the secretary is here,” the speaker observed. “You must come to the House after full preparation,” Elahi said to the minister.
Speaking on a point of order, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Syed Ali Haider Gilani said that there was a severe law and order situation in Multan, his home constituency. “The government must take action as three murders were reported in Multan in less than a month,” Gilani said. The Punjab Commission on Irregular Housing Schemes (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2021 was also laid in the House during the government business.
Later, the speaker adjourned the House to meet again on Friday morning. Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML_N) MPA Mirza Javaid distributed small bottles of petrol among the commuters who were passing outside the Punjab Assembly on motorbikes. A long queue of people was witnessed outside the Punjab Assembly who wanted to get even the small bottle of petrol. “I recorded my protest by distributing the bottles of petrol because people cannot afford buying it after the recent increase in the petroleum prices,” said Javaid.
He added that people would now take petrol with them while visiting someone instead of cakes or sweets. “It is my request to the government to immediately provide relief to the masses in petroleum prices,” he said. During the last session, the MPA reached Punjab Assembly on his bicycle to record his protest against inflation and price hike.
Earlier, speaking outside the Punjab Assembly, lawmakers of PML-N and PPP grilled the government for failing to control dengue. “I attended eleven funerals yesterday, all of whom were of people who died due to dengue,” said PML-N MPA Kh Imran Nazir, who has served as health minister during the last government of PML-N. He advised the government to take tuition from Shehbaz Sharif, who managed to control dengue when he was chief minister and Punjab was badly hit by the virus.
Parliamentary Leader of PPP Syed Hassan Murtaza said that the government’s only focus was to grill the opposition in fake cases and therefore it had failed to resolve the problems of the people. “There is acute shortage of dengue medicines in the market but the government is nowhere to be seen,” said the PPP lawmaker.
