June 28, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 12, 1428

LAHORE, June 27: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday approved the Rs69.11 billion supplementary budget for the financial year 2006-07 by accepting 40 demands for grant. The house also approved a demand for grant of Rs3.16 billion for financial year 2000-01 in respect of general administration. Its approval had been pending because, the government stated, the existing assembly came into being in November 2002.

Deputy Speaker Shaukat Mazari, who was in the chair, permitted the opposition to present only one cut motion relating to demand for grant of Rs7.27 billion for the police, and applied guillotine to allow the treasury benches to approve all the 40 demands through majority voice vote.

Backing their cut motion, the opposition members pleaded that the Rs7.27 billion spent on the police should not be approved as the force had failed to deliver.

Deputy opposition leader Rana Sanaullah said the law and order situation could not improve in Punjab without ensuring justice. If the government was serious in curbing lawlessness, it would have to ensure internal integrity in the police force which should be an independent force. The police chief also needed to be empowered with regard to appointments, postings and transfers of his subordinates.

He said the government held the IGP responsible for breach of discipline in the police force. He must also be answerable to the government for law and order situation, he said, adding that the police could not perform without unity of command.

Rana Sana also demanded that the police should be a provincial matter and the provincial assembly was authorised to consider the Police Order 2002. If the Punjab assembly could approve budget for the police and discuss law and order situation, then as to why it had no authority to amend the police rules, he asked.

He linked the deteriorating law and order situation to, what he said, the army’s dominance in the national affairs. “Military dictators require a confused nation for their survival and they confused the police first by changing the portfolios of the officers. How can a district police officer perform well when he is under the district nazim, the DIG investigation and operation”? he asked.

Rana Sana suggested a change to the existing system of the registration of FIRs. These should be registered by the SHO and not the DSP. Reforms should be made in the police department to improve its performance, he added.

MMA’s Ehsanuallah Waqas mentioned a survey report in which he said it was mentioned that an assistant sub-inspector was minting Rs150,000 a month through illegal means, sub-inspector Rs250,000, inspector Rs300,000 and DSP Rs500,000 a month.

Under these circumstances, he said, there was no need for any extra budget for the police department. The government should rather start taking commission from the police officers for their corruption instead of spending on them from national exchequer, he said.

PPP’s Azma Bokhari said most of the additional budget was spent on arranging security for VVIPs. According to the budgetary figures, Rs20.14 million had been spent on purchasing bullet proof helmets, Rs80.84 million on bullet proof jackets and Rs80 million on vehicles for providing security and protocol to the VVIPs, she said.

MMA’s Zaibun Nisa Qureshi said that in the past one year, 152 cases of kidnap for ransom, 1,519 cases of rape, 1,500 cases of gang-rape and 5,233 cases of murder were reported in Punjab. This meant that no extra budget should be allocated for the police.

According to PML-N’s Sheikh Ejaz Ahmad, law and order situation could not be improved in the country without restoring democracy. He said owing to the deteriorating law and order, traders in Gujrat, the hometown of the chief minister, observed a three-day strike recently.

Opposing the cut motion, law minister Basharat Raja said Punjab was considered an ‘island of peace’ because of the best policies of the government which had eradicated sectarianism, terrorism and violence.

Recounting various steps which had been taken to strengthen the police department, he said, their staff strength had been increased to 150,000 to introduce shift system. An extra amount of Rs2,000 each was given to over 100,000 officials, and Rs5 billion was spent on introducing a new traffic warden system in five major cities in the province, he said.

He said patrol posts established by the government helped reduce the crime rate on highways.

Responding to the opposition’s criticism regarding purchase of bullet proof helmets, jackets and metal detectors for the VVIPs, he said these were necessary to protect the life and property of the people and public meetings even those arranged by the opposition.

The Police Order 2002 would be amended if it contained any flaws, he claimed.

He said the special branch was also watching criminal activities like prostitution and gambling dens, helping reduce crime in the province.

The minister said the police were given facilities, but were also held accountable for their misdeeds. Departmental action was taken against 2,500 policemen. As many as 148 officials were suspended from service and 100 cases were registered against those found not working properly.

DOUBLE SHAH: ,/B>Earlier, Deputy Speaker Shaukat Mazari directed the law minister to properly handle the matter of Wazirabad’s Sibtul Hassan Shah because it was a ‘very serious’ issue.

Commenting on an adjournment motion moved by MMA’s Arshad Baggu, he asked the government to award cash and promotion to ASI Muhammad Ali who had recovered Rs80 million from a vehicle of Double Shah and handed it over to the DPO.

Mr Baggu had said in the motion that Pir Double Shah plundered Rs100 billion of unwary people. But despite his arrest and recovery of the amount, nothing had been returned to the victims.

He alleged that the police officers of the area had benefitted a great deal from the ‘jugglery’ of Double Shah whereas the general public lost its wealth. The people of Gujrat, Wazirabad and Sialkot handed over million of rupees to him and now they were disturbed.

The NAB had recovered the money from the accused, but it had not been repaid to the victims, he added.

Communication minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and education minister Mian Imran Masood gave credit to the government for arresting Double Shah and recovering the plundered amount from him. The deposits would be returned to the victims after a thorough inquiry into the scam, they said.

The law minister criticised PPP MPA Ejaz Samma for not getting registered an FIR against the accused and the police officers of the city. He said the government would register an FIR against all the police officials whom he accused of connivance provided he made a formal request for it.