June 22, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1429

LAHORE, June 21: Saeed Akbar Khan Niwani is a senior parliamentarian from Bhakkar district who has also played an important role in getting elected unopposed Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif from one of the two seats Niwani had won in the Feb 18 polls.

He believes that for the first time budget documents have been made an easy to understand exercise through the budget speech of the finance minister and for that he congratulated Tanvir Ashraf Kaira while taking part in the debate on the 2008-09 Punjab budget on Saturday.

This acknowledged understanding of the document, however, could not make him to touch any part of the budget in his around half-an-hour sermon.

This reminded one of the joke in which a reluctant speaker asked his audience if they knew what he was about to say. A loud “no” was the obvious reply. He left the podium saying he could not address “unknowing” people.

Eager to hear the man say something, the organisers somehow made him to re-occupy the dais. As the man repeated his question, the audience aware of the fate of their last reply changed it to a loud “yes”. The speaker again departed saying when all people already knew what he was about to say then there was no need for him to say anything.

Knowing the fact that all members of the house, and their respective voters at large, have grasped the budget, Niwani thus find it a useless effort to say anything about it.

He instead talked at length on lack of honest implementation of government policies by a “corrupt” bureaucracy and warned that if the practice continued it could support the forces out to wind up the system, and that breaking up of the PPP-PML-N coalition would cause an unbearable loss to the country.

Recalling break-up of the country in 1971, he said whenever the country was run by “opponents of politicians” it was ruined.

Stressing the need for a free judiciary, Niwani said judiciary was the name of judges and if they were courageous enough to face the severest pressure, they would not only provide justice to the needy but also protect the government against any adventurer.

Another noteworthy point of the proceedings was participation of two opposition (PML-Q forwad bloc) members – Najaf Abbas Sial and Jalal Din Dhakku — in the budget debate.

Sial urged the treasury to do something for bringing back to the house all opposition members. He lauded the establishment of dialysis centres in the province but urged that these should not be concentrated in Gujrat, Sialkot, Lahore, etc, areas as was the practice of the PML-Q government.

He objected to a meagre allocation of Rs3 billion for agriculture sector, which, he said, was feeding the people of not only Punjab but also the NWFP and Balochistan as well as Afghanistan.

He sought minimum support price for wheat at Rs1,000 per 40kg to save the country from future flour crisis.

Dhakku welcomed the revival of Green Tractor Scheme and demanded that each deserving family should be permitted to one application and not more. He also lauded the step of leasing out state land to landless but educated farmers.

He regretted that despite tall claims no one had been able to reform the police department because corrupt officers in it were never taken to task. He said suspension or transfer was no punishment for such officers.

He was repeatedly interrupted by women MPAs impatiently waiting for their turn to speak, prompting PPP’s Hasan Murtaza to protest it as humiliation of the senior parliamentarians.

The chair then ordered decorum in the house and advised the newcomers that their juniors in future would respect them only if they would now respect their seniors.

MR QUORUM, NO MR MERIT: Rao Kashif Rahim from Faisalabad, who despite being a PML-N member, created problem for the treasury by pointing out quorum on the first day of the budget debate and was tagged Mr Quorum by some MPAs, spoke at a time when the house lacked quorum.

He claimed that Punjab could become problem-free within six months if the government adopted merit in each policy and affair.

He regretted that he was made fun of when he talked of appointing dead honest officers.

Seeking a stringent accountability of the bureaucracy, Rao warned all MPAs to observe merit otherwise they would lose their honour. He also sought accountability of those who had caused wheat flour and other crises.

He suggested interlinking all police stations’ record with the Chief Minister’s Secretariat and inspector general of police’s office through a computer networking and suspending SHOs if they refused to register FIRs of aggrieved parties.

Rao alleged that the fund collected by the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority (PIDA) were being spent on luxuries of its officials.

As the chair, being held by deputy speaker Rana Mashhud, directed to him wind up his speech, he complained that as he talked of merit, he was not being enough time while others were speaking for over 30 to 45 minutes. He then earned a new tag — Mr Merit.

Shah Jehan Bhatti opposed retrospective legislation by levy tax on luxury vehicles purchased since 2005 and termed it a punishing act.

He demanded subsidy on diesel for running farm tubewells in the wake of shortage of water and spending more on rural areas instead of urban ones to check influx of people towards major cities.

Malik Tanvir Aslam demanded expansion of the Punjab Education Foundation and forming a think-tank to overhaul the police system.

BALOCHI: Sardar Athar Hassan Khan Gorchani, PPP MPA from Rajanpur, sought permission of the chair to speak his mind in Balochi. He was permitted with the word of caution that it may not be reported in the official record for the staff could not understand the language.

Niwani, whom Gorchani called as his chacha (uncle), suggested that the Sardar himself should translate his statement for the benefit of others.

Starting in Balochi, Gorchani, however, reverted to Urdu when another MPA realised him that whom he was speaking to as neither the finance minister nor any other member or the media could note the problems of his area he was pointing out.

FATEHA: The house offered fateha for former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto whose 55th birth anniversary was being celebrated on Saturday. Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira tabled the move for the purpose when the house resumed debate on the budget.