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LAHORE The Punjab Assembly on Thursday passed the Sasti Roti Authority Bill 2009 with majority vote of the treasury members.
The bill gave legal cover and a mechanism to run the Sasti Roti Scheme being eagerly supported by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The opposition members, who boycotted the session in protest over the closure of the Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal, returned to the House. Most of their amendments to the bill were already rejected by the house (in their absence).
The opposition, comprising its leader Chaudhry Zaheer and four women MPAs, could not also defend their remaining amendments to the bill because of their low number.
What they did to hamper the proceedings twice was pointing out the short quorum. On both occasions, the government managed to maintain the quorum within five minutes during which the speaker ordered that bells be tolled.
But whenever it was declared that the quorum was not short, the treasury members started melting away, preferring to sit in the lobby or in the cafeteria perhaps considering that getting the bill passed was the job of Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan.
The opposition returned to the house to support its proposed amendment to the Clause 31 of the bill. Dr Samia Amjad pressed for the amendment seeking discussion on the report of the scheme's authority in the house.
She praised the chief minister for running the scheme with all his sincerity but regretted that steps had not been taken to eliminate corruption at the implementation stage.
It would have been better had the scheme been launched in all districts and the sasti roti given also to the poor assembly employees, she said.
Pressing for another amendment, she and other PML-Q women said the scheme was making people beggar. It would have been better to subsidise wheat so that everyone could buy roti at lower rates.
Their all amendments were defeated with the majority votes of the treasury benches but Rana Sanaullah said it was good to see the opposition admitting sincerity of the chief minister. “They may praise the chief minister while gathering at the Zahoor Elahi Road,” he said while referring to the residence of PML-Q leader Pervaiz Elahi.
Chaudhry Zaheer said the bill was adopted illegally as the chair did not name the opposition members while putting to vote their amendments to the bill. Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood who was in chair did not respond to it.
