LAHORE - The Treasury and Opposition in the Punjab Assembly on Monday locked horns over rape and murder of eight minor girls in Kasur, including seven years old Zainab.

The Opposition blamed the rape and murder incidents involving minor girls in Kasur on inefficient Punjab Police. Treasury members said the PTI-led Opposition was doing nothing to arrest those involved in rape and murder of Asma in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the PTI was in power. They said that Khan’s soft corner for the Taliban was the reason for loss of thousands of innocent people’s lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The 34th session of the assembly started four hours behind the schedule and was marred by the blame game between the Treasury and the Opposition over rape and murder incidents involving minor girls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

On a call attention notice, leader of Opposition Mian Mahmudur Rashid lamented police firing on people protesting against Zainab’s rape and murder in Kasur. Two people were killed in this firing incident. Had people not protested and lost lives, he said, the government would not have woken up to the Zainab rape and murder case. He said had the government been sincere in arresting the killer of minor girls, it would have put the police on alert after the very first incident.

Rashid lambasted the government over 2015 Kasur sex scam involving minor boys and said no action had been taken against the culprits until now. He said the Punjab government was inefficient and it failed to protect citizens. He said the Punjab government had made the province a police state. He also highlighted killing of young Mudassir in a fake police encounter. Kasur police had arrested Mudassir on charge of rape and murder of minor Iman Fatima, one of the eight victim girls, and killed him in a staged encounter. Later, DNA tests proved that Iman Fatima was sexually assaulted and killed by Imran, who is said to be involved in the Zainab rape and murder case too.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan admitted that two protesters lost their lives in the police firing during a mob attack on Kasur deputy commissioner’s office. He said that police personnel involved in this incident and those accused of killing Mudassir had been arrested. He said that a case had been registered against the policemen involved in these incidents. He grilled the leader of the Opposition for labelling the Punjab government inefficient and asked, “What has the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa done to arrest killers of Asma and another girl?” He said the JIT on the 2015 Kasur sex scam found that claims about 250 or 284 boys’ involvement in this case were exaggerated. He said the Opposition was scoring points on Kasur incidents.

About the Zainab case, Sanaullah said that accused Imran had been arrested and the challan in this case would be submitted to the court within two weeks as per Supreme Court’s direction. He rejected the claims of an anchorperson that Imran had 37 bank accounts and that he was associated with an international pornography racket. He said the anchorperson tried to derail the investigation into the case by issuing such a statement. He said the Punjab government had some information and it would make it public after completion of probe into the incident by a joint investigation team.

The session with Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan in the chair took questions on transport and environment departments.

Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Nawaz Chohan appeared blank when questions were asked about the Orange Line Metro Train and Rawalpindi Metro Bus. He did not even know that loan for the metro train had been obtained in dollars or rupees and what the actual amount is.

When asked about terms and conditions and rate of interest on the loans, Chohan sought time to collect information from the Economic Affairs Division and delivered a long speech in praise of both projects. Arif Abbasi of the Opposition said the metro train would cost taxpayers Rs300 billion and only the chief minister knows details of expenses on the project.