LAHORE: The issues of Mina tragedy and Nandipur power project were raised in the Punjab Assembly on Thursday by two opposition members who sought a discussion on the both through their out-of-turn resolutions, but were disallowed by the Chair.

The PA proceedings, starting an hour later than the scheduled time, were later prorogued without completing the agenda for the day.

Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, was the first to ask for a discussion on Mina stampede and seek an explanation from the Saudi Arabia through an out-of-turn resolution.

The Chair, however, disallowed the discussion on the issue saying it was a foreign policy issue and a federal subject.

Unimpressed by the logic, the opposition leader was of the view that around 100 Pakistanis lost their lives in Saudi Arabia, which made it a concern for every Pakistani and the Punjab Assembly should discuss it.

The law minister wanted to delete a portion of the resolution before accepting it for discussion but the Chair disallowed even a diluted draft, insisting it was a federal subject.

A similar fate awaited another out-of-turn resolution by Arif Abbasi of the Opposition, who wanted the House to discuss Nandipur Power Project, costing the country tens of billions of rupees because of “corruption and inefficiency”.

This time, the Chair stopped the discussion on more technical grounds, saying it has already allowed tabling of privilege motions, thus no other subject could be taken up.

Earlier, the flour prices, which had registered seven time hike in the last 10 weeks, also came up for a discussion during the Question Hour. Chaudhry Asadullah, the Parliamentary Secretary for Food, answered queries related to his department.

The parliamentary secretary insisted that the last increase had already been reversed and the 20kg flour bag was being sold at Rs775 in the market. The Opposition, however, chose to differ; saying the market price was much higher and the government either had its figures wrong or was misleading the House.

The both gentlemen, who wanted to raise Mina tragedy and Nandipur Power Project also stood on supplementary questions and reminded the parliamentary secretary how the flour prices had shot through the roof after Ramazan.

The flour millers increased prices whenever they wanted to and the government looked on helplessly or connived with them, they alleged. They wanted the government to take action against the food department for passing on wrong information to it. At this juncture, senior provincial minister Raja Ishfaq Sarwar and human rights minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu came to the rescue of their colleague, asking the Opposition to bring up a privilege motion if they were not satisfied with the official answer rather than dragging the debate.

The flour pricing issue was hardly over when Sheikh Allaudin of the Treasury came up with a similar issue concerning milk consumers. He suggested the government to constitute mobile laboratories for testing milk during the official raids on different shops or factories. He said previously milk of three different multinationals was declared “not pure” in the initial test and they were fined but later, their milk was termed “pure” after some laboratory tests.

Mr Asadullah claimed the milk samples were sent to a laboratory registered in Britain for tests and the action was taken against the companies on its reports. He also informed the House that a food committee had been formed in every district and a task force in every division of the province to maintain food quality.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2015

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