7, April 2005	Thursday	27 Safar 1426

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LAHORE, April 6: Around half-an-hour of the question hour in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday was consumed by a confrontation between Arshad Bagu and Speaker Afzal Sahi, which ended only after a walkout by MMA MPs. Mr Bagu wanted to speak on a point of order soon after recitation from the holy Quran. The speaker disallowed him saying that he (Mr Bagu) has not learned when to raise a point of order despite spending two-and-a-half years in the house and admonished him to “behave in a civilized manner on the floor of the House.”

Protesting against his remarks, Mr Bagu said he would not speak on a point of order in his (Mr Sahi’s) presence.

The speaker also disallowed his colleague Ehsanullah Waqas from speaking on issues other than his question on livestock and dairy development. On it, the MMA MPAs announced a walkout and the speaker let them go.

Neither the speaker nor the treasury benches showed any interest in bringing them back. It took a sermonising by deputy opposition leader Rana Sanaullah Khan to prod the government into bringing the protesting MPAs back. Finally, Mr Khan and Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal were sent to do the job.

Replying to questions, parliamentary secretary for livestock and dairy development Chaudhry Khalid Mahmood in the absence of minister concerned, stated that there was no case of bird flu in the country and any misunderstanding was more of a result of propaganda in the media.

Replying to another question, he said for the time being there was no plan to bring birds into the insurance net because it was not feasible.

To another question, he announced that the government was taking steps to give common people chillers with a capacity of 1,000 litres to store milk in different parts of the province.

He told the house that the Punjab government was the first to take steps to provide veterinary dispensaries in Sahiwal, Okara, Muzaffargarh and Jhang districts.

In the next phase, a hospital in Cholistan and mobile dispensaries would be set up, he concluded.