June 27, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1427

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LAHORE, June 26: Deputy opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Rana Sanaullah on Monday made Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raja Basharat say on the floor of the house that all the politicians did the same things while being in power.

“Iss hammam mei hum sub nangay” (we all are naked in the bath) was the response of the Raja from Rawalpindi when the Rana from Faisalabad was quoting details of, what he called, lavish spending under the miscellaneous department heads from the supplementary budget statement for the 2005-06 fiscal year.

He said two falcons purchased for Rs3.6 million were presented to a Gulf ruler, billions of rupees were spent for activities like Lahore Fort sound and light shows —- Anarkali and Noor Jehan, drama extravaganza Barhte Qadam, musical programmes and conferences at a time when clean drinking water was not available to a majority of the population of the province and people were committing suicides because of unemployment and poverty. He said the rulers should have adopted some other way to strengthen relations with the Gulf rulers.

Treasury member Mushtaq Kiyani, on a point of order, advised the Rana to restrict the debate to the budget. “What the Gulf rulers did for us you can’t imagine. They gave us oil for years without getting any payment from us.”

Rana Sana said he failed to understand why a grant-in-aid of Rs100 million was given to the Rawalpindi Gymkhana Club, the Rs300 million grants to the Combined Military Hospital at Lahore and the Rs4.4 million given to the Anjuman-i-Tajran-i-Lahore. The statement contained no details of the Rs1,532,000 arrears paid to a daily newspaper, Rs6,427,000 payment of an advertisement campaign and another Rs400,000 given for the tuition fee of one Usman.

A sum of over Rs20 million were spent to purchase 25 walkthrough gates and later an amount of Rs10 million was spent to get another 25 such gates, Rana said while asking either the earlier equipment was of superior quality or was it purchased at exorbitant prices.

Raja Basharat informed the house on a point of order that all the previous governments had been spending in the similar way. The supplementary budget statement for the 1998-99 also contained similar expenditure under similar heads. “All the governments had been running their businesses the same way. Would Rana Sahib like to explain from where their leaders had got the money to set up mills in Gulf states? They advocate for the poor but hold party meetings at London, he said.

“A horse was purchased for Rs2 million by the leaders of Rana Sahib for presenting it to a prince of Saudi Arabia. Such steps have to be taken to strengthen ties with brotherly nations,” the minister said.

Ehsanullah Waqas said on a point of order that Raja Basharat had never been on the opposition benches.

“Raja Sahib was among the people who voted for the horse then and now he would also say yes for the falcons.”

Jails Minister Saeed Akbar Niwani said the present government had eliminated corruption at the highest level.

Opposition’s Samiullah said the shady deal of the Pakistan Steel Mills was finalised by the present government at the highest level. It was the Supreme Court that took notice and prevented the government from selling the national asset at a throwaway price. The apex court has discharged its duty well, he said.

Communication and Works Minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said the opposition members had accepted that judiciary was independent and they should also accept court verdicts against their leaders. Leaders of the opposition parties living abroad should come back and face the law of the land, he said.

Deputy Speaker Sardar Shaukat Mazari said the short order of the Supreme Court on Steel Mills sale had reflected the independence of judiciary in the country.

Opposition leader Qasim Zia said the present government could not prove anything against Benazir Bhutto in any court of the country. “Who are involved in sugar, cement crises and who are the land mafia? After the admission of Raja Sahib that his government was not different from the previous governments, there remains no space for debate.”

Rana Sana said he fully agreed with the law minister that “all were naked in the bath”. The amount spent lavishly by the present government was, in fact, the tax money and the rulers had committed a breach of trust. While referring to the previous supplementary budgets, the minister should also provide data about the number of people who ended their lives because of poverty or unemployment during that period and the number of people who died due to consumption of unhygienic water.

Earlier, Saghira Islam thanked the treasury women members for taking care of her when she fainted.

The chair also sent the motion pertaining to zakat disbursement, moved by Kunwal Naseem, to the privilage committee. Mr Mazari also kept another motion regarding police highhandedness pending till Tuesday.

Rana Sana criticised the big allocation for the police department in spite of the deteriorating law and order situation in the province.

He also sought details of the CM’s secret fund of Rs40 million and said the cause of all the ills was bad governance. He was optimistic that the situation would improve next year after the fall of the present government.

Opposition’s Ehsanul Haq said the supplementary budget was 22 per cent in excess that proved mismanagement on the part of the government.

“The European legislatures present five per cent excess supplementary budget as a norm and if the government goes beyond, it has to justify the spending and seek express approval of the house. But the government here spends money first and then seeks its approval and that too after 10 months or so. We have 22 per cent in excess but our treasury members are all praise for the chief minister for presenting excess supplementary budget,” Mr Haq said while terming the practice a clear violation of the budget rules.

The chair adjourned the house for Tuesday morning.