December 24, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 19, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, Dec 23: The first requisitioned session of the Punjab Assembly is due to begin here on Tuesday morning. Agenda for two days has been issued.

The session is being held at a time when the provincial cabinet is yet to be announced. Under the rules, when the minister or parliamentary secretary of a department are not there, the chief minister himself offers the government’s point of view on matters raised by opposition.

It is not yet clear who will reply the questions on Tuesday.

Matters concerning local government, rural development and housing will be taken up on Tuesday. There will be no session on Dec 25 because of the Christmas and Quaid-i-Azam’s birth anniversary.

The house is scheduled to meet again on Thursday.

A requisitioned session is called and prorogued by the speaker. Responsibility to keep the house in quorum lies with the opposition.

This means at least 93 MPAs must be present in the house all the time to continue the pro-

ceedings.

The PML-Q parliamentary party met here on Monday to finalize a strategy for the session.

The PPP parliamentary party will meet on Tuesday morning.

Opposition leader Qasim Zia told reporters here on Monday that the law and order situation, problems which arose with the formation of boards of governors for educational and health institutions, and the FBI-led operation in Manawan, Lahore, would be raised in the assembly.

The PML-N will hold a demonstration in front of the assembly secretariat on Tuesday to protest against the arrest of Dr.Javed Khwaja from Manawan, the way the Punjab government plans to rig the byelections, violation of human rights and other related issues.

PML-Q meeting: Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi chaired on Monday a meeting of the PML-Q parliamentary party at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat during which MPAs put up their complaints and a strategy was reportedly evolved for the assembly session on Tuesday.

One of the complaints was about the ceiling for agriculture income tax which the MPAs reportedly said should be enhanced. They appreciated the 4 per cent reduction in the markup on agriculture loans.

Mr Elahi said the government was taking steps to resolve the problems of the people and all departments were evolving strategy in this regard. The people would soon see welcome changes in the agriculture and education sectors, he said.

He said the government had set a two-year target for the welfare of farmers and rehabilitation of irrigation system. In this regard, efforts were being made to obtain loans from the international financial institutions.

He said he intended to set up a permanent system of justice for curbing crime in the Punjab.

He announced that recommendations of the Justice Mujaddid Mirza commission, set up to review autonomy of hospitals and educational institutions, would be implemented and legislation be made in their light.