LAHORE - Though it is no fun having to attend an Assembly session on a Monday after a two-day break, but it was all fun while it lasted.

The otherwise boring question hour passed in no time as the Punjab Minister for Zakat & Ushar Naghma Mushtaq amused the house with her funny answers.

As she did not come prepared to answer the questions regarding her department, she said funny things never heard before in the Assembly. “After all, I am a human being. I have not come from the skies. If one becomes a minister, it does not mean he/she becomes a know-it-all person.” she remarked after facing a volley of supplementary questions from the lawmakers. 

Hailing from Multan, Naghma Mushtaq is one of the two women ministers in Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet who has returned to the Assembly for a second time after contesting election on a general seat. She shares this distinction only with Minister for Women Development, Hameeda Waheedudin who is a member of the house from Mandi Bahauddin.

Two other women ministers, Ayesha Ghous Pasha and Begum Zakia Shah Nawaz are members on the seats reserved for women.     

Though the Assembly members can ask three supplementary questions in respect of one question, the minister announced she could take only one. “You people are trying to confuse me by asking tricky questions”, she deplored.   

In the meanwhile, Ms Naghma also did another strange thing unbecoming of a minister. The lawmakers saw her rushing towards the official gallery to talk to someone. Then she rushed back to take the questions. It could not however be known what made her to leave her seat to approach the official box.

While it is customary that ministers do sometimes rely on the spoon- feeding from the official gallery, but it comes in the form of chits through the attendants. So it was unusual to see a minister doing it herself. 

Later, after the question hour, Punjab Minister for Industries and Trade, Sheikh Aladuddin tried to give a political spin to an issue which is not controversial. “Come what may, Mr Speaker, I will not allow import of vegetables from India just to fulfill the desires of certain people”. He repeated this sentence thrice for a greater emphasis. Surely, the minister was trying to give the impression as if such a demand had come from the opposition benches.

In another attempt at political point scoring, the trade minister said: “We are transporting tomatoes from KPK instead of India, with the aim to benefit the farmers in that province.”

To this, PTI’s Mian Aslam Iqbal rightly objected to his statement saying why the minister was making such an assertion when the opposition had not pressed him to import vegetables from the neighboring country. He said the real issue was to ensure prompt supply of vegetables in the market at affordable prices.    

Also, Sheikh Alauddin spoke on a point of personal explanation about his Friday’s statement of eating dogs and cats in times of food crisis. He complained to the Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal that a section of the media had twisted his remark. He explained that he did not mean that people should start eating cats and dogs if tomatoes were not available.