March 22, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 18, 1424

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LAHORE, March 21: Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja assured the Punjab Assembly on Friday that PML(N) leader Rana Sanaullah Khan would be provided justice and the government would extend him all possible cooperation.

Winding up the six-hour debate on the law and order situation in the province, he said the accused responsible for maltreating the deputy opposition leader would be traced and taken to task.

The government of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, he said, did not believe in victimization and it wanted to take legislators from all parties along. The minister said victimization of opponents was a routine affair in the past when Dalai Camp was set up and some important opposition leaders were slain.

The PML(Q) leadership could not even think of such things.

Sympathising with Rana Sanaullah Khan for what had happened with him, the law minister said the government would honour its obligations in the matter.

About the law and order situation in the province, he said it was under control as a result of various measures taken by the government. Serious crime incidence had come down and some 6,000 proclaimed offenders had been arrested.

The chief minister, he said, had directed all police stations that cases should be registered whenever some complaint was lodged.

Referring to the army’s role in politics, he said, he agreed with the suggestion that the army was supposed to defend the country’s borders. He said the critics should also see who was responsible for sucking the army in politics. “The kettle should not call the pot black”, he said in remarks directed at opponents.

Agriculture Minister Arshad Khan Lodhi said Rana Sanaullah Khan knew the procedure of having the case registered. Once the case was registered, he said, it was for the government to have it investigated.

The government, he said, was not in a position to identify the accused as it had no eye witness account.

He said the law would take its own course, although he had sympathy for the PML(N) leader.

Lodhi said opposition parties should also play their role in improving the law and order situation.

He said the credit for having the democratic system restored went to the PML(Q). Environment minister Makhdoom Ashfaq Ahmed said the PML(Q) government inherited the law and order problem and it was trying its best to set the situation right.

He said the situation in the neighbouring countries was also not good.