LAHORE, Sept 12: Preparations are in full swing to increase the seating capacity of the Punjab Assembly. The need arose in the wake of present government’s decision to raise the Punjab Assembly strength from 260 to 390.

“It is now the largest assembly in the country. I hope that the new seating arrangements will be ready by the start of next month,” the secretary for Punjab Assembly, Dr Abul Hasan Najmi, said here on Thursday.

The authorities started planning renovation and expansion of assembly chambers five months ago. The work was started on July 3. The cost was estimated at Rs13 million which, Dr Najmi expected, would rise to Rs17 to 18 million.

The work is in full swing nowadays. Seats in the assembly hall are being repaired and desks polished while new ones are being added in the visitor’s gallery on the first floor facing the Speaker’s desk. The sound system is also being improved.

Seating arrangements are being made for MPAs in the larger portion of the visitors’ gallery on the right. The portion on the extreme left will be reserved for visitors and journalists. There is a plan to set up a partition between the seats for MPAs and those for visitors and journalists.

The assembly authorities have also got the two lifts repaired and plan to use the one on the right for MPAs and that on the left for journalists. Visitors will use stairs.

According to Dr Najmi, since the visitors would lose a majority of their seats to MPAs, they might be allowed to watch the proceedings on hourly rather than daily basis.

Besides the improvements being made in the main assembly hall, the cafeteria is also being turned into a lounge from where the members would be able to watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit television. There will be television with a cable service, sofas and other facilities in the cafeteria.

Governor Khalid Maqbool, who is personally supervising the project, at a recent meeting directed the authorities to make seating arrangements for visitors at an open space outside the main building, where a large screen connected to the closed-circuit TV would enable them to watch the proceedings. Similar arrangements should also be made at the basement of the MPAs hostel facing the assembly building, he directed.

He ordered that all debates held in the assembly since the creation of Pakistan should be made available at a website so as to enable the people to know about the legislative history of the province.

The proceedings of the assembly should be recorded on compact discs through an electronic format rather than an audio system. The CDs should be sold at affordable prices.

The governor also approved a Rs8 million online project for the provincial assembly, the software for which, he directed, should be developed in consultation with the University of Engineering and Technology’s research department.

However, Dr Najmi said the idea of making seating arrangements for visitors at an open space was not suitable.

He said the facility should be provided at some air-conditioned place.

“Making similar arrangements at the basement of MPAs’ hostel would require a lot of money. We are also trying to provide the same facility at the assembly house’s main committee room,” said Dr Najmi. — Intikhab Hanif