LAHORE, Oct 24: The Punjab finance and forest ministers who dealt with questions about their departments during the question hour in the assembly on Friday proved that they could not tackle the opposition without the help of their colleagues and the Speaker.

Hasnain Bahadur Dareshak and Dr Ashfaqur Rehman looked dull and unprepared as they uttered incomplete sentences in response to supplementary questions by Deputy Leader of the Opposition Rana Sanaullah Khan and his comrades.

Speaker Afzal Sahi, who presided over the House after a gap of a few days, was pertinent to the rules and mindful of the faults of ministers. He relieved Law Minister Raja Basharat of his yeoman service of defending the government and his faltering colleagues in the cabinet.

The ministers nevertheless provided many chances to the opposition to feel dominant. Mr Dareshak continued to pronounce “medical” as “maadical” and was unable, despite many attempts, to clarify that the local bodies employees whose jobs were not handled by his department were still government servants.

His colleague, Dr Ashfaqur Rehman, made vague replies to supplementary questions and mentioned his department’s Guzarajaat as cooperative societies.

He asked a member to file a fresh question when he was unable to tell when the elections of Guzara societies were last held. Mr Rehman’s logic was that “the question was about a new issue”.

The question hour began with a query of Rana Sanaullah Khan who wanted to know the service prospects of local government department’s medical assistants and technicians.

The finance minister said in his written reply that these people were not government employees and had separate pay scales and privileges.

In response, Rana Sana asked the minister to confirm whether this was true or not, and explain the basic qualification for the two offices.

The minister repeated that the local government employees were not government servants as they were covered by the Local Government Ordinance 2002 and not the Civil Servants Act 1974.

Rana Sana said if the minister’s statement was correct, it should come on the record that the provincial government had no control over local government employees. He asked the law minister to note the point and “not (just) negate it” during the debate next Wednesday on the question whether or not the government had authority over district government’s devolved departments.

Sensing the trap, the law minister came to the rescue of the finance minister, explaining that local government employees were still government servants even though they were not under the finance department.

The statement could not satisfy Rana Sana who said the ministers’ reply depicted the uncertainty that prevailed all over the country at the moment.

Later, replying to a supplementary question asked by MMA’s Arshad Baggu, the minister said the government had increased the pension of its 346,557 retired employees by 15 per cent in July 2003.

Replying to a question asked by Mian Yawar Zaman on The Bank of Punjab’s agriculture loans and supplementary questions asked by others, the minister said it was impossible to get rid of Riba, but the government was lowering the interest rate especially on agriculture loans.

He said the commercial banks were charging a 7.5 per cent interest rate only on industrial loans. The Bank of Punjab was charging a nine per cent interest on farm loans, which was the lowest in the province. The government was trying to lower the interest rate further, he said.

He said 5,474 farmers had so far been given loans worth something around Rs700 million, saying he was not sure about the exact amount.

It was Speaker Afzal Sahi who rescued the minister when Rana Sanaullah pointed out that the answer he had furnished about the number of farmers who obtained the loans from The Bank of Punjab was not updated. He supported Mr Sana by saying that the ministers must furnish updated information about questions asked by the members.

Replying to a question asked by PPP’s Shafqat Abbasi on the Murree Kahuta Development Authority, the forest minister said it was created in 1976 but disbanded first in 1978 and then in 2000.

To a supplementary question by the MPA, he said around 3,000 trees had been felled for the creation of New Murree. The loss of trees was less than the benefits of the new city. The government also planned to provide the missing facilities in other places of Murree tehsil, he said.

The speaker asked PPP’s Tariq Kiani to file a fresh question when he enquired under which secret arrangement the forest department had given land for the new city.

The law minister opposed the MPA and said the city was not being created under any clandestine arrangement. It was being created through a development authority which was being covered by a law.

The city was being created over 3,000 acres of land and details of the project would be presented in the house with the related bill. The government had engaged foreign firms for a report on the feasibility of the city, and its land would be disposed off according to the law, he said.

In response to a question asked by PML-N’s Ajasam Sharif, the minister said his department was running its nurseries in Lahore on a no-profit basis, issuing plants to government offices besides selling them to educational institutions on nominal rates. The department intended to privatize some of its nurseries, he said.

Mr Ajasam did not accept the claim of the minister that his department was giving its plants to schools that did not even have children.

In response to a question by Javed Iqbal Awan and a supplementary query by another member, the minister said the department had been asking the brick kiln owners to desist from using costly wood as fuel.

It was again the Speaker who protected the minister when he failed to reply to a supplementary question, prompting Rana Sana to remark: “Sir, please train the ministers in your chamber and not in the House.”