LAHORE: Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz has demanded constitution of a parliamentary committee to probe the Murree tragedy as Law Minister Raja Basharat blames the opposition for politicking on the issue.

“The Murree tragedy is very regrettable. It should not be used for politicking. I’m speaking here not as the opposition leader but as a father and a brother…But, [the fact of the matter is that] the incumbent government did not utilise the snow-removing machinery already procured by the last PML-N government,” Hamza said.

Opening the general discussion in the house on the tragedy on Friday, he demanded that a parliamentary committee should be immediately formed to probe the incident. He wondered where the helicopter the prime minister used to travel between Banigala and the PM House was at the time when it was needed to rescue the people stranded on the Murree Expressway during heavy snowfall on the night between Jan 7 and Jan 8 that led to the death of 23 tourists.

Referring to the suspension of 15 bureaucrats, including Rawalpindi commissioner, for dereliction of duty, Hamza said suspension of a few officers would not compensate for the sufferings of the people and pledged not to rest until those responsible for the tragedy were penalised.

Talking to the media outside the assembly building, the opposition leader lamented at the ‘insensitivity’ of the rulers and recalled that the government didn’t bring to the dock those found guilty in the burning of 70 passengers in a train accident and Sahiwal killings.

He said when young girls were seeking help in Murree, the Punjab chief minister was holding meetings for his party’s reorganisation.

He also talked about the travails of the farmers, price hike, food crisis and demolition of houses of common people for various irregularities while the prime minister’s own house was regularized overlooking all the irregularities in its construction.

Hamza Shahbaz announced talking to all the political parties, including allies of the government, to ‘minus Imran Khan’ from the political scene. He said the allies should also review the national situation and revisit their decision of supporting the incumbent government.

Responding to the opposition leader’s tirade in the house, Law Minister Raja Basharat presented the government’s performance in the Anarkali blast and MPA Bilal Yasin’s attack cases.

He said nothing had been concealed from the people and action against those responsible for any incident was being taken.

Later, talking to the media, the minister declared the attitude of the opposition leader as undemocratic. He said it had been settled with the representatives of Hamza Shehbaz that he could speak his mind in the house and his speech would be telecast for five minutes but notwithstanding all these assurances, the opposition enacted a drama outside the house.

Terming the Murree tragedy a natural disaster, Mr Basharat regretted that Hamza did not utter even a single word on the Model Town killings that took place in the tenure of the PML-N.

He gave credit to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar for fulfilling his promise of penalising those found guilty in the Murree tragedy.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2022