LAHORE – Punjab Assembly took a U-turn on the very next day after passing resolution regarding imposition of ban on objectionable musical concerts at educational institutions in the province.
Both the PML-N and the PPP favoured extracurricular and recreational activities at the educational institutions. While Law Minister Rana Sanaullah asserted that the resolution was ineffective after the addition of word ‘objectionable’ before the musical concerts, Opposition Leader Raja Riaz Ahmed showed his intention of bringing another resolution to counter the one presented by PML-Q’s Seemal Kamran and passed by the House on Tuesday with a majority vote.
At the PA floor on Wednesday, Speaker Rana Iqbal suggested the legislators from across the political divide to bring another resolution after due consultation to remove the wrong impression conveyed by the previous resolution. On a Point of Order, Unification Bloc’s Sh Allauddin criticised the contents of the resolution, saying that ban on musical concerts at public sector and private educational institutions was condemnable. He said those wanting ban on musical concerts could later desire prohibition of wearing jeans at educational institutions.
PPP’s Sajida Mir said that the resolution has created a wrong impression and there was need of passing another one to convey the real sense of the House.
Raja Riaz said the House has no right to deprive the masses of recreational activities. He said the PPP did not support ban on musical concerts at educational institutions. He said the educational institutions were not organising any objectionable activity and they should be allowed to continue creative holding events.
Rana Sanaullah said the government has no intention to ban cultural activities at the educational institutions. He said the resolution of Seemal Kamran became ineffective after the addition of word ‘objectionable’ before the musical concerts. He said even then some people were angered after the passage of the said resolution. He said there was need of going through the contents of the resolution and there was nothing to worry about.
 “We feel that the heads of educational institutions will further improve the standards of cultural and creative activities”, he said.  The Chair suggested the legislators to bring another resolution to remove wrong impression created by the one passed by the House on Tuesday.
Later, the House re-passed 14 out of the 28 Amendment Bills returned by the Punjab Governor for review with the note that the matters under question were actually the federal subjects, amid strong opposition of the PPP legislators. The treasury managed to pass all the bills on the agenda despite the opposition pointed quorum five times.
Rana Sanaullah told the House that the Governor should have referred the 18th Amendment which had abolished the concurrent list, leaving federal and provincial subjects clearly defined in the constitution. He said since the new Federal List had no mention of the issues under consideration therefore the House had the right to legislate upon them.
The opposition legislators including Zulfiqar Gondal and Shaukat Basra suggested the Punjab government to sit with the federal government to clarify as to which of the under consideration issues fall in the provincial purview. They demanded deferring the bills citing an Implementation Commission headed by Senator Raza Rabbani which was working to chalk out modalities and procedures to effectively distribute devolved ministries to the provinces.
Rana Sanaullah said the Implementation Commission was given one year to complete its job which expired on June 30, 2011 and thus there was no constitutional bar on the provinces to legislate on the devolved subjects since the 18th amendment had now become part of the constitution. He insisted Punjab Assembly drew its powers to legislate from the Constitution and not from any Commission or Authority. He said legislation was the prime duty of the PA and no commission could obstruct in the discharge of this sacred duty to the elected members of the people of the province. He said the Governor had raised the same objection on all the Bills sent back to the House, demanding their review on the plea that they did not fall under the provincial subjects. The opposition had no other option but to point out quorum five times during the legislation process that lasted over three hours, but every time Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood rung the bells and made a count of the members before ruling that House was in quorum.
Shaukat Basra, Zulfiqar Gondal, Ehsanul Haq Nolathia and Amna Ulfat tried in vain to make the House either wait till the Implementation Commission decision or decide the clear bifurcation of the federal and provincial matters by sitting with the federal government. But they were out-voiced by the law minister.
Shaukat Basra termed the re-passage of those bills an illegal and unconstitutional work which, he warned, would be in conflict with the National Assembly’s legislation. Ehsanul Haq Nolatia remarked that the day was the blackest day in the history of the PA which surpassed the deeds of the dictators like Zia, Yahya and Musharraf.