LAHORE, July 29: Nausher Khan Langrial, a PPP MPA from Vehari, ‘broke open’ a room at an MPAs’ hostel and occupied it on Monday night instead of taking the proper course of getting permission/allotment from the authorities concerned.

Room No 307 at the MPAs’ hostel had reportedly been allotted to MPA from Bahawalpur Iftikhar Gilani. As Gilani vacated the room, a few hours later Langrial’s men ‘broke’ the lock and occupied it reportedly for another MPA, Tahir Mahmood Hundali of Sialkot.

Officials say since the new Punjab Assembly came into being, locks of rooms have been broken at least a dozen times as the lawmakers avoid adopting the proper channel because only a few dozen rooms are available for 271 MPAs.

The practice, they say, has been common in all the democratic set-ups as caretakers of the hostels connive with the ‘law-breaking’ lawmakers by not timely informing the authorities when a room is vacated by any allottee/occupant.

They allege that the hostel caretakers themselves open the rooms for their ‘client’ MPAs and reports of ‘lock breaking’ and forcible occupation of rooms are given only to save their skin.

These caretakers – Aurangzeb Warraich of MPAs’ Hostel and Yawar Abbas of Pipal’s House – are so influential that successive speakers and PA secretaries have failed even to transfer them to some other post, not to talk of suspending or terminating them.

A former PA secretary, Abul Hasan Najmi, on persistent complaints transferred MPAs’ Hostel caretaker Hafiz Allah Bakhsh to the Assembly Secretariat but he had to revert the decision within three days, an official told this reporter.