October 06, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 23, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 5: Punjab Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Basharat Raja on Friday embarrassed Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) members, saying they had ended their five-year association with the combined opposition only for power.

Mr Raja took the floor when PPP’s Ehsan Naulatia labelled the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) as Qabza League during a debate on tabling of the Punjab Judicial Academy Bill of 2007.

Mr Naulatia, on a point of order, said neither the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) nor the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) had been given representation in the proposed academy. He chided the standing committee of the Punjab Assembly for flaws in the draft bill, saying standing committees played an important role in legislation the world over. But, he said, here the ruling PML MPAs, being a majority in all the committees, did not take interest in the process, due to which many of the bodies could not meet even once during their five-year term.

Mr Raja said he had been thinking for the last three days (since the house was in session) that the PPP was not talking about its colleagues in the combined opposition with whom it had been protesting and staging walkouts from the house and adopting a joint stance on various issues.

Intensifying his assault, the provincial minister alleged the PPP leadership was praying for a deal to satiate its lust for power.

He said the academy would be a provincial body so representation of the PBC was out of the question. He said all people representing the forum would be professionals and from government departments.