June 15, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1429

LAHORE, June 14: The Punjab Assembly fails to find a builder for its ‘utopian’ dome meant for holding sessions of the house, which was originally built to accommodate 60-plus members in 1935.The current strength of the assembly members is 371 and a large portion of the visitors’ gallery has been made part of the house to accommodate all provincial lawmakers.

Necessitating a larger facility for convening sessions of the swelled house, the previous government initiated a Rs636.7 million Punjab Assembly extension project in June 2005 which was to be completed within 12 months.

A replica of the old building, except the glass-top dome or session hall having 500-seat capacity and which will rest between the old and the new edifice, its cost was later revised to Rs1,013.7 million, but the project was never completed even two years after its scheduled date of June 2006.

House Committee of the Punjab Assembly which met here on Saturday with Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan in the chair noted that a dome with glass-top was a utopian idea envisaged by the PML-Q government for no expertise was available in the country about such constructions.

An official claimed that there existed just three or four companies the world over that had the requisite experience in such constructions. The committee, thus, decided to build the dome with concrete top, reducing its cost from reportedly around Rs1 billion to just Rs60 million.

Meanwhile, the assembly secretariat has notified that budget session of the house will begin at 11am on Monday (June 16). A meeting of the 10-member house business advisory committee was held here on Saturday to decide agenda of the budget session.

On a proposal of opposition member Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, the committee decided to increase daily time for discussion on the budget from five to six hours for the four days set for the purpose to give maximum time to MPAs, most of who are first timers.

The committee did not take up the issue of nomination of opposition leader as traditionally he opens the discussion on budget. Even the committee itself will be established after the issue of the opposition leader is settled as he and his three nominees will then be attending the meetings of the committee held before each session of the house.