LAHORE - The continuous downpour forced the Punjab Assembly speaker to adjourn the yesterday sitting for lack of quorum as thin attendance was witnessed at the provincial legislature.

Interestingly, it is not only the district government which has failed to avert the city from becoming a ‘seasonal canal’ but the provincial assembly staff has also failed to clean the Speaker’s chamber of water from dripping roof.

However, opposition member Ahsan Riaz Fatiana, who has been enraged over the treasury benches for not taking the interest in the house, pointed out the quorum soon after the question hour. The speaker adjourned the session until today at 9am.

The yesterday sitting started with a delay of 1 hour and 15 minutes against the scheduled time of 10am with Speaker Rana Iqbal in the chair.

The opposition members drew the attention of the speaker over the issue of ministers and treasury members’ non seriousness to attend the house proceedings despite enjoying huge perks and privileges for this job.

Provincial Minister Chaudhary Sher Ali Khan responded to questions on Local Government and Community Development.  The minister responding to a question by Arshad Malik told the house that government was facing difficulties for proper and timely repair of important roads after the maintenance of highways was handed over to the provincial highways authority.

Replying to a query of Ahsan Riaz Fatiana, Sher Ali told the members that no fresh contract of sanitation services was awarded to any private company in Faisalabad district.

He, however, added that government was considering evolving the most modern system of sanitation following international standards and on the pattern of developed world by awarding contracts to efficient and properly equipped private companies.

“Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has always envisioned of a clean and developed province but it would take some time because of lack of resources,” claimed the minister.

Responding to a question of Dr Nosheen Hamid, the minister told the house that the government changed the policy regarding installation of mobile phone towers in the urban areas and according to new policy no mobile company is allowed to install its towers in the residential areas.

The mobile phone towers would be installed in the commercial zones and areas according to the policy, he added.

Replying to a query of Dr Waseem Akhtar, Sher Ali said that nobody is allowed to establish a bus stand without approval from the authorities concerned.