LAHORE, Sept 21: The government is adamant not to disclose names of those given state land on contract, regretted ruling party MPA Chaudhry Javed Ahmad during a question-hour on Wednesday. He complained to the chair that his written question filed in April 2003 regarding possessors of state land in Pakpattan district had been taken up by the house six months ago.

But it had to be kept pending as the revenue and colonies department in its reply had mentioned only illegal possessors of the land, he said, lamenting that the answer did not change when the same query was being taken up today (Wednesday).

The chair was quick to come to the rescue of the colonies minister by saying that his (Chaudhry’s) was an extensive question and how the department could give details of tens of thousands of acres of state land in the province.

Another treasury MPA, Najaf Sial, also challenged the answer, and yet another, Malik Nazar Farid Khokhar, complained about wrongdoings in state land allotments.

PPP’s Ehsan Naulatia found out that in written answers to at least 10 queries it had been just stated that action had been initiated against illegal possessors though the questions had been submitted at least a couple of years ago.

Seeing various interpretations of Chaudhry Javed’s question, parliamentary secretary Chaudhry Abdullah Yousaf could not help saying that the mover as well as the minister were there so it was better to let them alone solve the matter.