LAHORE: The Punjab government admitted in the provincial assembly on Friday that some officials had not implemented orders of the chief minister despite passage of more than three years.

The admission came when MPA Ahmed Khan Bhachhar through a written question asked about the status of the chief minister’s oral directive about quashment of a case against 6,000 Mianwali residents booked for protesting against loadshedding in 2011.

The mover recalled that Shahbaz Sharif had given the orders during his visit to Mianwali district and under the directive the Sargodha division commissioner had written to the regional police officer on Dec 31, 2011, that the FIR be withdrawn.

Responding to the query, Parliamentary Secretary Mehr Ijaz told the house that the chief minister had given such a directive and the commissioner had written to the Home Department for quashment of the case. But neither the department acted upon it nor did the Punjab prosecutor general issue any instruction for withdrawal of the case, he added.

He said the inquiry by a sessions judge declared some of the accused not guilty. A confused Ijaz, who performed poorly while responding to various queries regarding the Home Department, assured the house that “the chief minister’s directive shall be implemented in two months… no, in one month.”

On being challenged by the movers, the parliamentary secretary admitted that wrong answers to two of the questions had been submitted by the home department. At this Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani, who was chairing the first day proceedings of the seventh session, sought action against the officials who provided the wrong answers and subsequent report to the house by the next session.

One wonders at the chair’s direction. A parliamentary secretary has no power outside the house and the deputy speaker must be well aware of the fact as he had recently hired an expert for taking tuition on role and powers of the legislature and the law-making procedures.

This also provided a chance to the opposition to launch an offensive against what they said non-serious attitude of the treasury. PML-Q’s Amer Sultan Cheema demanded that the chair gave an “immediate directive on the issue before it cooled down.”

The law minister intervened and politely reprimanded the opposition for ridiculing a first-time parliamentary secretary. The attitude, he said, would deprive the newcomers of learning chances.

Rana Sanaullah also informed the house that a committee had been formed to amend the rules of business regarding the Question Hour. He said the queries pertaining to one constituency or a town would be taken as Starred Questions, which are not taken up for discussion in the house. Only those queries would be taken up by the lawmakers that would be related to provincial policies and performance.

The minister also said the responses to questions submitted in one session would be given in the next session taking a break from the present precedent in which departments were taking months to give answers to the written questions by MPAs.

He advised the opposition to bring a privilege motion against the department concerned if they found reply to any question wrong.

Mr Cheema got irritated on alleged signaling to some MPAs by the assembly secretary and said the members would not accept dictation from the assembly staff on any issue.

Later, the law minister laid the Punjab Public Private Partnership Ordinance 2014 before the house. He could not introduce the Punjab Fair Representation of Women Bill 2014 as the opposition pointed out that the house lacked quorum.

The bill aims at amending 66 laws, 30 about educational institutions, five about town planning and housing authorities, Ring Road, Metro Bus authority, minimum wages ordinance, fair price shops, etc., to give at least 33pc representation to women in these bodies.

The chair adjourned the proceedings for Saturday afternoon.