LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MPA Shunila Ruth raised on Thursday the plight of under-trial prisoners of the Youhanabad lynching case, saying they were not being provided medical treatment in jails and for that reasons, two of them had died.

On a call-attention notice, Ms Ruth said why the Youhanabad lynching case had not been decided yet despite the passage of three years. Police had arrested several Christians after a mob lynched some people soon after a blast in the church three years ago. She dared the Punjab government to work as efficiently in the Youhanabad case as the KP government had done in the Mashaal Khan lynching case.

Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu responded to the notice, saying that the Youhanabad case was in the court, whereas the prisoners were being provided medical facilities in the jail. He said he could visit the jail along with the legislator to see the situation. He also asked the PTI benches to get arrested the prime accused in Mashal Khan case, who was a PTI councilor.

He said that the two prisoners who had died during the trial had been suffering from some fatal diseases even before they were arrested.

PA still reverberates with cane price issue

Another PTI member Muhammad Arif Abbasi, on a point of order, raised the issue of health and nutrition supervisors and non-formal literacy teachers who had occupied the Charing Cross for the regularization of their jobs. Most of the staffers were masters, MPhil and PhD scholars but the government had failed to provide them job security.Opposition Leader Mahmoodur Rasheed, on a point of order, said frequent protests outside the assembly hall showed the dwindling writ of the government. The occupy-The Mall trend had made it difficult for the MPAs to reach the assembly building easily. He said the government had better dig a tunnel from Governor’s House to the assembly building.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan said that Law Minster Rana Sanaullah would speak to the protesters.

Jamaat-i-Islami’s Dr Wasim Akhtar took the government to task for not implementing official sugarcane price of Rs180 per 40kg. He alleged some sugar mills in Bahawalpur were buying sugarcane from the farmers at Rs160 per 40kg while no government department, including the deputy commissioner office and the food department, was bothered about the plight of sugarcane farmers.

He said the mill owners were buying the yield through middlemen. He left the house to show his resentment over the issue, but returned to the house when the speaker intervened into the matter and called him back.

Law Minister Sanaullah said that Dr Akhtar did not know the exact situation of the issue.

He said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had held two meetings with the officials and mill owners after the crushing season started and also constituted a committee to resolve the price issue.

He said the mill owners would have to raise sugar prices from Rs45 to 60 in market if they were to buy the yield at Rs180 per 40kg.

He said that after several meetings, they had decided that the mills would buy sugarcane at Rs160 to 165 per 40kg whereas the price on cane procurement receipt (CPR) would be Rs180.

He said they had also taken action against the general managers of the sugar mills for not implementing government rate and had also ordered the arrest of the owners. “We’ll hold a meeting with the sugar mill owners and farmer organisations on Thursday evening and ask the opposition members also to participate in the meeting,” he said.

PPP MPA Shahabuddin Sehar, negating the stance of the minister, said mills in home district Layyah were buying at Rs156 to 158 per 40kg from the farmers against a Rs180 CPR.

The law minister said that earlier there were reports that the sugar mills were buying cane at Rs100 to 110 but the situation had improved due to the constant monitoring of the government institutions.

His response failed to convince even the treasury benches when MPA Mian Islam Aslam said that he had a CPR of Rs150 which he could produce in the house. He said that criminal cases should be registered against the sugar mill owners for not implementing government price.

During Question Hour, PML-Q MPA Khadija Umar on behalf of PPP MPA Faiza Malik said the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Manga Mandi, lacked basic classroom facilities and several posts of teachers had been lying vacant for years.

Parliamentary Secretary for School Education Joyce Rofin Julius that there were 25 rooms in the schools besides three laboratory rooms and principal and clerk offices.

She said five posts were vacant, and postings would be done by March 1. The speaker adjourned the session until Friday after PTI’s Nabila Hakim pointed out the broken quorum.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2018