LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution paying glowing tributes to the Pakistan armed forces for giving a befitting reply by shooting down two Indian war planes and arresting a pilot for violating Pakistan’s airspace.

After suspending all rules in the session chaired by speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, law minister Basharat Raja, housing minister Mahmoodur Rasheed and former speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan presented a resolution stating that the Pakistan armed forces launched action against the Indian aircrafts after they intruded into Pakistan’s airspace and kept the whole nation’s head high.

“The Punjab Assembly is of the opinion that Pakistan has always been desirous of peace but the Indian political and military leadership suffering from war hysteria forced Pakistan armed forces to retaliate and defend the boundaries of homeland,” the resolution said.

House adopts resolution, passes four bills

“Following this befitting reply, India should look for better sense and understand the difference that Pakistan armed forces were ready for martyrdom, while the enemy’s army was afraid of death,” the resolution said.

The Punjab Assembly, through the federal government, appealed to the comity of nations to take appropriate action against the Indian government for endangering peace of the world for merely winning the next elections.

During the session, the Punjab Assembly passed four bills as well as amendments in the rules of procedure [of Punjab Assembly] 1997.

The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Secretariat Employees Bill 2019 was unanimously passed by the House.

The Punjab Skills Development Authority Bill 2018; the Punjab Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (amendment) Bill 2018; the Punjab Board of Technical Education (amendment) Bill 2018 as well as motions under rule 244-A to amend rules of procedure of Punjab Assembly 1997 were passed by the House.

STANDING COMMITTEES: Speaker Pervaiz Elahi also constituted a committee led by law minister Basharat Raja, on the demand of the opposition, to discuss and empower House’s standing committees.

PML-N MPAs Samiullah Khan, Azma Bukhari and Malik Nadeem Kamran stressed that the standing committees should be empowered so that they could call their meetings and work assertively.

Law minister Basharat Raja, housing minister Mahmoodur Rasheed and industries minister Mian Aslam Iqbal chided the opposition members for not even thinking about empowering the standing committees as the PML-N ruled for full one decade in Punjab.

The ministers said they continued crying hoarse while in opposition but the PML-N threw all such recommendations in the dustbin. However, they said, the incumbent PTI government would take steps and empower the standing committees.

The speaker constituted a committee led by law minister Basharat Raja and stressed that the opposition MPAs should also be included in the committee.

The speaker also constituted another committee led by law minister Basharat Raja to thrash out the issue of banning foam packaging by the Punjab Food Authority following an adjournment motion. The speaker stressed that opposition members should also be included in the committee and added that it should give its recommendations within a week or 10 days.

During the Question Hour, PTI MPA Uzma Kardar raised a point that when Punjab sanitation policy would be in place.

Responding to the question, housing minister Mahmoodur Rasheed said the PTI government would revisit the policy and take it to the next cabinet meeting for approval. He said the Punjab sanitation policy would soon be implemented.

Answering questions about funding for different ongoing development schemes in the province, the housing minister said the previous Shahbaz Sharif-led PML-N government had launched several new development schemes worth billions of rupees keeping in view the 2018 general elections and allocated few millions of rupees to name them as ongoing schemes.

“The PTI government will fund the ongoing schemes while devising priority and availability of funds,” he said.

The speaker adjourned the session till 11am on Thursday (today).

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2019