LAHORE - Instead of elaborating his own answers on floor of the House, ill-prepared Punjab Minister for Auqaf Ehsan Uddin Qureshi frequently asked legislators to bring fresh questions, saying supplementary queries were irrelevant. Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal rescued and defended the minister on a number of occasions by suggesting legislators to bring fresh questions and at times saying answers were quite satisfactory. A legislator, who wanted to know the qualification for Imam of Badshahi Mosque, was advised by the minister to come up with a fresh query. It takes the department several months to come up with answer to any question because of the complicated bureaucratic procedure. To a supplementary question of Nighat Nasir Sheikh during Question Hour on Auqaf Department at the Assembly floor on Wednesday, the minister said post of Badshahi Mosque Imam was lying vacant since 1999. He said the BPS-18 seat was vacant and the government was looking for a person who fulfils the criterion for the said job. On query about the criterion and qualification for the post, he asked the legislator to bring fresh question. Instead of giving plausible reason for collection of over Rs 11.63 million at Imam Ali Al-Haq Darbar, Sialkot in June 2009, over 300 per cent more than the collective collection during the previous 11 months, the minister stressed that it was up to the visitors to make a contribution. Responding to a supplementary question of Tahir Mahmood Hundli, the minister said the collection of amount varies as it depends on number of visiting people and the money they put in the boxes. The legislator suggested that the money collected in June was even three times more than the collective collection during the previous 11 months. He stressed it was department that was not collecting amount at proper time and in accordance with the schedule. To a supplementary question of an opposition legislator regarding disposal of worn out pages of the Holy Quran, the minister said the department was carrying out the task at a factory in Faisalabad. He said there were boxes at almost all mosques for collection of worn out pages of the Holy Quran. From there, he said, the pages were sent to the factory in Faisalabad for disposal in accordance with the guidelines of ulema. To the query regarding action against those who dumped huge quantity of holy pages in a drain, the minister asked the legislators to pinpoint those people. He, however, admitted the gruesome incident by saying case was registered against unknown culprits but they were still at large. He said the department could take action against the publishers involved in substandard and wrong printing. He asked the legislators to point out such publishers. To a query about criterion for proofreaders, he asked the legislator to bring a fresh question for this purpose. To a supplementary question of opposition legislator Mohsin Leghari regarding utilisation of income earned from Darbar of Hazrat Sakhi Sarwar in DG Khan, he said the money was utilised to facilitate visiting people and to meet expenditures incurred on mosques. Mohsin Leghari said the department was spending far less money to facilitate visiting people than the amount collected from the Darbar. The minister said the department would identify project for the uplift of Sakhi Sarwar Darbar after due consultation with Mohsin Leghari. The minister said the commercial plots were leased out after thorough advertisements in national newspapers. The department provided lands for college or school on 30-year lease after approval from the Punjab government, and as per policy, the department also increased the rent amount by 25 per cent, and get in advance the entire amount of the lease period.