LAHORE, May 12: Provincial government departments are violating rules of business and, thus, discouraging MPAs from taking active part in legislation by not ‘entertaining’ their bills for an appropriate procedure. Under section 32 of the Rules of Business 1974, as soon as a notice regarding introduction of a non-official bill is received from the Assembly Secretariat by a department, it shall assess administrative implications of the proposed legislation, consult law, finance and other departments concerned where necessary, and prepare a summary for consideration of the provincial cabinet.

After seeking instructions of the cabinet, the department shall prepare a brief for the use of the minister or the parliamentary secretary concerned for a line of action to be adopted.

The private members, since the existing Punjab Assembly came into being after Oct 10, 2002 elections, have tabled around 30 bills on various subjects (about different departments). But not a single bill has so far been forwarded to the cabinet.

Some of the bills, like the prohibition of domestic violence bill by Dr Anjum Amjad and prohibition of private money lending bill by Humaira Shahid, were tabled two years ago.

Dozens of meetings of respective standing committees on these proposed pieces of legislation have been held so far, costing the exchequer millions of rupees. And if the cabinet decides to oppose any bill(s), the amount spent on them will go down the drain, besides wastage of precious time of the legislators and the government officials involved in the business of the committees.

This wastage of time and money can be saved by timely processing of the bills by the departments concerned.

Furthermore, the lukewarm response of the provincial departments is frustrating movers of the bills as their input is decreasing day by day.

Law minister Raja Muhammad Basharat was not available for comments.