2 April, 2005	Saturday	22 Safar 1426

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LAHORE, April 1: Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja has asserted that law-enforcement agencies will take action against those who will try to participate in the MMA-called protest rallies despite imposition of Section 144. The minister stated this in response to an opposition MPA’s claim that protest rallies would be held against the government policies all over the country. “The violators will face action,” he said in the Punjab Assembly on Friday.

Opposition MPA Syed Ehsanullah Waqas said the interior minister and the Sindh chief minister were hurling threats that cases under the charge of terrorism would be registered against the protesters. He said: “this is no politics.”

PPP’s Nishat Afzal said whenever the opposition wanted to protest against the government policies, the government imposed Section 144 without any hindrance. It, however, lifted the section whenever it wanted to hold public meetings, he said, calling it discrimination.

Ms Afzal asked the law minister that how and at which forum the public should protest and convey its concerns to the government.

Taking up another issue, Punjab Food Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal presented salient features of the Punjab Ombudsman’s annual report of 2003.

He said the ombudsman’s office was created to assess the government departments’ functioning and give suggestions for their improvement. It was also meant to give relief to the public, he said, pledging to make efforts to provide relief to the masses.

Earlier, broaching discussion on the subject, opposition MPA Waqas said the ombudsman’s report had exposed the performance of the government departments. Besides lawlessness and environment degradation, he said, corruption was rampant in different departments, including education.

Mr Waqas demanded that the government should focus on implementing the suggestions highlighted in the report. Answering a question, the food minister said a high-level meeting would soon be held to consider the proposal of setting up the Punjab Ombudsman’s sub-offices in districts.