LAHORE, Oct 15: The PPP and PML-Q MPAs held a demonstration outside the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on The Mall to protest what they called “the Punjab government’s failure in controlling dengue outbreak and maintaining law and order”.

Led by Opposition Leader Raja Riaz, parliamentarians and PPP office-bearers took out a rally from the Punjab Assembly to the chief minister’s office where they staged a sit-in. The participants chanted slogans against the Punjab government for its failure in controlling dengue, especially in Lahore, that resulted in death of over 200 people. They said the chief minister was responsible for the deaths and a murder case be registered against him.

Speaking on the occasion, Riaz said the chief minister should appoint a full-fledged health minister as he (Sharif) was holding the portfolios of 16 ministries.

Had the provincial government taken measures on time, such a large number of deaths could have been averted, the former senior minister in the Punjab government said. The dengue outbreak had exposed the good governance claim of the “stubborn” chief minister, he added.

MPA Shaukat Basra said the chief minister should present in the house audit report of Rs1.7billion spent on dengue spray. Punjab PPP president Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, secretary-general Samiullah Khan and deputy secretary-general Usman Malik also participated in the demonstration.

PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid told Dawn that both the PPP and the PML-Q could assemble only 53 of their MPAs that showed how much they were interested in holding the protest. “We had sent some 100 bottles of soft drinks, double to their number, to the protesters but these bottles could not be consumed,” Mr Rashid added.