04 June 2004	Friday	15 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

LAHORE, June 3: The opposition in the Punjab Assembly remained subdued during the question hour on Thursday, as they encountered a 'smart' minister who had come to the house fully prepared on the issues and affairs of his department.

The question hour was related to the local government and rural development department for which Raja Basharat had taken a full briefing from his staff a day before. He also avoided indulging in unnecessary controversies while responding to almost negligible supplementary queries, leaving no room for the opposition benches to play to the gallery.

It was because of this scheme that for the first time in the history of the existing house, no less than 17 questions were taken up in one day. Only Asghar Ali Qaisar consumed some energy of the minister on the issue of foreign aid for development works in Faisalabad.

But he was ill prepared to confront the minister, who soon knocked out the Faisalabad MPA on technical grounds. He lacked information about the procedure for provision of foreign aid to local councils.

Meanwhile, the house was told that the ECNEC had approved a plan for strengthening the decentralized local government in Faisalabad. A British institution, DFID, is collaborating in the project.

A scheme had been prepared for removing all encroachments from the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town. However, the operation would be launched after the purchase of the required machinery and bulldozers. All other local councils had also been directed to remove encroachments from their respected areas.

The house was also informed that development work in slums established after 1985 would be undertaken in the second phase. Currently, work was being done only on those localities that were declared legal by the department due to shortage of funds.