LAHORE -  Dr Syed Wasim Akhtar of Jamaat-i-Islami has surely some magical powers in him, but he would use them only when the spirit moves him.

A rare manifestation of this was seen at the Punjab Assembly floor yesterday when he prompted Punjab Irrigation Minister Amanatullah Khan Shadikhel to speak the truth in an environment where the politicians and the government functionaries tend to be economical with the truth.

The issue under consideration of the house was the alleged water theft from Abbasia Link Canal in Bahawalpur division. In the written answer provided to the assembly, the irrigation department had strongly denied the existence of any illegal water outlets allegedly dug out by influential landlords of the area.

Dr Wasim, the mover, pleaded before the chair that the answer was totally wrong. He challenged its veracity saying he could take the minister to that canal to show him the unlawful water outlets there. The speaker gave the floor to the minister to respond to the allegation.

“Mr speaker, Dr Wasim is right in his assertion; such water outlets do exist. The department is, however, on it and hopefully they would be closed,” Shadikhel stunned the entire house by telling the whole truth. It was not a contradiction in terms, but a complete deviation from what he had claimed in the written answer. An absolute calm was writ large on his face. He had spoken the truth. It was a rare gesture from a politician.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal asked the minister to submit a comprehensive report in the house after taking action against the water thieves.

On the other hand, Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry and Wildlife Mian Fida Hussain Wattoo was not ready to admit that vacant forest land was under an illegal occupation. Despite insistence by Malik Arshad Malik Advocate of the PML-N that he personally knew the persons who had occupied the land, Wattoo, who also supports beard, asserted neither the forest land had been leased out to anybody nor was it under any illegal occupation. Instead, he asked the mover to pinpoint specific cases and the government would take action. “I am not that simple to divulge the names, Mr speaker, I don’t want to destroy my next election,” the MPA from Sahiwal told the chair.

Going further in his gainsaying, the worthy parliamentary secretary was reluctant to acknowledge an obvious contradiction in the written answer to a question by Rahila Anwar of the PTI. While in the first part of the answer the department said it levied 25 percent tax on the income received from the dry wood of the private forests, the second part of the same answer said the department did not levy any tax on the private forests. After a lot of foot dragging on the issue, Wattoo eventually agreed to submit a detailed answer, later. The speaker, however, referred the question to the house committee to get the facts of this matter.