August 14, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 11, 1429

LAHORE, Aug 13: Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah Khan on Wednesday informed the Punjab Assembly that over Rs200 million were misappropriated in allotment of publicity boards of the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA).

Responding to a question by Arifa Khalid during the question hour, the minister said the government now auctioned the boards instead of adopting previous formula and got astonishing results.

The minister said the boards on under passes on different roads generated Rs2.9 million during 2007-08, whereas they had been auctioned for Rs30 million for 08-09. Similarly, pole signs generated Rs16.4 million in 07-08 but the same have yielded Rs117.5 million through auction.

He said during 07-08, the profit from billboards was recorded at Rs4.5 million, while the current auction generated Rs45.5 million from this head alone. The difference showed that around Rs200 million were misappropriated by the former rulers, he added.

If this is the situation of one section of the PHA, one could imagine how much money was looted or doled out to oblige the favourites. He assured the house of action under Anti Corruption Act after the completion of the inquiry against the responsible officials.

Responding to a question by treasury member Sagheera Islam about the utilisation of funds for the water supply at Chua-Saidan Shah, senior minister Raja Riaz said that 4.6 million had been allocated for the water supply for the town, claiming this time the project would be completed within the stipulated time.

Responding to a supplementary question regarding liaison between various departments, he again accused the former rulers of creating confusion among them. But now, he said, the government had made it compulsory for all the departments to get the NOC from the C&W department before executing any project.

It happened in the past that one department constructed the road and the other dug it out again for laying sewerage, he said, pledging the exercise would stop forthwith.

Responding to another question about open manholes, Rana Sana said the department concerned had claimed that there were no open manholes in the city. The mover was not impressed and continued insisting that there were manholes without lids in the city. Rana said housing secretary was present in the house, and the mover should visit the area that he had pointed out along with the officer. If any irregularity was found, a strict action would be taken against the responsible officers, he said.

The speaker also asked the law minister to ensure proper and correct answers to the questions.

Treasury member Sajida Mir on a point of order said that the inquiry should be held into utilisation of funds provided to the MPAs during the previous regime. If even the manholes were still open, the house must know where the funds have gone, she stressed.

The house could take up only five questions during the question hour mostly because of non-serious attitude of the members, who kept interfering in the proceedings with flimsy comments and irrelevant questions. It happened in spite of repeated requests from the speaker against wasting time.