LAHORE - A lone voice in Punjab Assembly, which made an effort to condemn violence against minorities in India, neither got allowed to advance her case on the issue nor received any support from her colleagues in the house on Friday.
Treasury member, Dr Farzana Nazir, during the Friday sitting of the Punjab Assembly on point of order was not allowed by the chair to advance her point of view to condemn the attack on Christian community in India. At the same time, she was not supported by her colleagues even from the treasury benches on this serious issue.
The session which started with Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani in the chair could not take up the government business because of adjournment of the sitting till Monday due to lack of quorum after issuance of notification of members attendance on website.
Another treasury member, Muhammad Ilyas Chinnioti, on a point of order claimed that members of Qadiyani community were submitting applications for teachers’ vacancies without declaring themselves as Qadiyanis, which was an injustice with the Muslim candidates.
The chair told the member that the chief minister had fixed five per cent quota for the minorities and Qadiyanis were getting forms for this job cadre under minority quota.
The house also witnessed an interesting episode when two treasury members, Punjab Industries Minister Chaudhary Shafiq and treasury member Mian Tariq Mehmood, locked in a debate over establishing Kharian, a town of District Gujrat, bigger than its other town Dinga. The debate was started for establishing Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) in a bigger town of District Gujrat, while on this issue the provincial minister said that Kharian, a town of Gujrat, is bigger than it’s another town Dinga because of its population.
However, the minister’s colleague said that Dinga was bigger than Kharian as the former town had two union councils while the later had one union council. The minister told the house that Kharian was bigger than Dinga according to the official record.
Opposition member, Dr Waseem Akhtar, taking up the issue of house committee on Kalabagh Dam said that the committee, which had to develop consensus among all the provinces for the construction of the vital dam, had failed to hold a single meeting so far. The chair assured the opposition member for calling a meeting of the committee at the earliest.
Earlier, during the question hour on food, industry, commerce and investment departments, Opposition member Sardar Waqas Moakal locked horns with Industries minister over the issue of drainage and water treatment of over 80 mills.
Intervening in the debate, the chair asked the Industries minister not to reply the queries outside the preview of his department.
Food Minister Bilal Yaseen, during the question hour, told the house that action against unhygienic and forbidden meat was going on but this matter falls under the jurisdiction of livestock department.