LAHORE: Except for assurance by the health minister of filling hundreds of posts in her department and a brief rumpus created by the opposition and the treasury, the Punjab Assembly session on Tuesday was a lackluster affair.

Even three resolutions were further kept pending in view of the absence of the ministers concerned during the private members day. The session was presided over by Mian Shafi Muhammad, a member of the panel of chairmen, despite the presence of the speaker and the deputy speaker in the assembly chambers.

The session started nearly two hours behind its schedule time of 11am and the agenda items were merely a question hour on health and the three resolutions.

Replying to questions by the members, Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said that because of rush of patients in district headquarter hospitals, the government could not arrange separate beds for drug addicts. They would be arranged for in the next financial year.

She said that for the treatment of drug addicts, the department was recruiting one psychiatrist for each DHQ. She said a task force was working on the issue of curbing drug peddling and addiction. She said clinical psychologists would also be inducted initially through walk-in interviews.

She said under the prime minister’s initiative a Rs53.5 million project was being implemented to repair rural and basic health units in eight districts in Punjab.

The reply agitated questioner Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan who asked as to why the province was implementing prime minister’s initiatives, asking if there was any of the chief minister.

Replying to a point raised by former health minister Khwaja Salman, she said the seat of senior medical officer could be filled through ad hoc appointment. Khwaja Salman had said this seat could only be filled through promotions. “Kindly get yourself corrected,” he said when Dr Rashid insisted her reply was correct.

Replying to another question by Mr Saqib Khurshid, she said her department had already recruited thousands of doctors and related staff. And major recruitments would be completed by June this year.

When Khwaja Salman asked as to who had created the vacancies, she said: “You had forgotten to recruit the staff after giving situation vacant advertisements in the media in 2017.”

The chair announced the conclusion of the question hour after PML-N’s Azma Bukhari asked as to why the PTI government was not delivering after eight months in power. He said the question was irrelevant.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Dr Akhtar Malik told the house that the government had started a survey to assess the damage to the wheat crop by rain and windstorms last week. He said a report of the survey would be submitted in the house and the government would fully support the affected farmers.

The rumpus was created after PML-N’s Rana Mashhood claimed that a meeting of the Higher Education Commission on Monday had decided to reduce the budget of universities, double the fees of students and withdraw funds for research. Chaudhry Zaheer and other PTI ministers contradicted the claim and said Rana Mashhood was telling a lie. The rumpus died down amidst slogans: “Go Imran Go.”

The chair said the government had already announced the agriculture insurance policy, after PML-N MPA Hina Pervez Butt asked as to why the affected wheat growers had not been given any compensation even when the prime minister had announced it.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2019