LAHORE, Oct 27: The Punjab Assembly could take up only six written queries during the Question Hour on Thursday as the house witnessed a lengthy argument between law and local bodies minister Raja Basharat and PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah on granting ownership rights to the residents of a kutchi abadi while the matter was sub judice.

On a written question by Mr Sanaullah, the minister said proprietary rights to the residents of two kutcha abadis built on Punjab government land falling in the constituency of Rana Sana could not be granted as it had been challenged in the Lahore High Court.

Demanding details of the writ petition, the Rana alleged that the minister was submitting wrong information to the house, claiming the court had issued no stay order against the process of granting ownership rights.

He lamented that the department concerned could not obtain NoC for the purpose though the survey for ascertaining status of kutcha abadis had been completed back in 1984-85.

The minister said the land was not directly owned by the provincial government but a department which had moved the court.

Neither ownership rights to the residents could be granted nor any development work could be executed there though the local government department had funds for the purpose, he declared.

The PML-N leader again challenged him, saying some development work had already been executed in the said localities. He sought that the chair, being held by Deputy-Speaker Shaukat Husain Mazari, must set some timeframe for the minister to submit a proper reply to his question.

An infuriated minister assured the house that no such work had been taken up as Rana Sana was telling a lie. He offered to form a special committee to inspect the site for determining the actual situation.

He rejected any time-frame, saying he could not force the court to decide the matter in a certain period.

A treasury member suggested the authorities should save record of such lands with various departments to check bogus survey reports by the land mafia for grabbing the land.

Disposing off the question, the chair remarked that where there was no stay order against a kutcha abadi, the government could and must grant ownership rights as earlier as possible. On a written question by Raja Shafqat Abbasi about sewerage problem in a Lahore’s Bund Road locality, PPP’s Samiullah Khan objected that the query related to the housing and physical planning department so the local bodies minister could not answer it.

The chair did not overrule the objection.