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LAHORE Upset at the emergence of one after another scandal involving its parliamentarians, the Pakistan Muslim League-N high command has decided to act strictly against MPA Shumaila Rana who allegedly used some stolen credit cards for shopping.
According to sources, the MPA has been asked by the party leadership to tender her resignation from women reserved seat (W-307) after she failed to turn up at a meeting convened here on Sunday to hear her point of view.
The resignation would, however, be forwarded to the Punjab Assembly speaker after formal announcement of the inquiry report.
'The incident (of using stolen credit cards) is very unfortunate and legal action will certainly be taken on the issue,' Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif later told reporters at a function.
Sardar Zulfikar Khosa, who is Punjab chapter president of the party and senior adviser to the chief minister, said what the CCTV had shown and verification of the credit cards had confirmed that these were used without lawful authority.
According to him, Miss Rana will be made to resign. The decision could be different if it was found that the incident was an outcome of some money dispute, etc. He would not explain the 'different' decision.
Miss Rana had never been a party activist, said another PML-N leader, adding she was given party ticket in recognition of the services rendered for the party by her mother, Anjum Rana, who was not a graduate.
Estranged from her husband, Hidayatullah, for contracting a second marriage, Anjum along with daughter Shumaila was living in Nadirabad on Bedian Road and would attend party meetings and rallies with difficulty while traveling in vans and buses. Anjum, a committed PML-N activist, was, however, suspended from membership a couple of times for violating party discipline.
To a question, Khosa said the media had done a good job by disclosing to public wrongdoings of elected representatives and that the party had no complaint with the media provided it unfolded scandals after a proper investigation like it did in the recent case.
He said the PML-N leadership acted immediately after any scandal involving party MPs came to its knowledge anywhere.
He recalled that MNA from Rawalpindi, Haji Pervaiz Khan, was made to resign when he was found involved in using unfair means in an examination.
Similarly, the office of political adviser to the chief minister was withdrawn from MPA Munawwar Ali Gill allegedly involved in a rape case, he added.
About pardoning prisons minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor in two different incidents, clash with Customs staff at the Lahore airport and physically assaulting a woman opposition member in the Punjab Assembly, he defended that the inquiry report in the airport clash had found the Customs staff misbehaving with the minister.
In the assembly incident, Khosa held the woman MPA (Bushra Gardezi) responsible for provoking the treasury by waving a placard declaring leader of the house (Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif) a traitor. 'The woman is sitting in the party of traitors (PML-Q) which is not calling a violator of the Constitution (General Pervez Musharraf) a traitor but instead is labelling a man (Punjab chief minister) who has just lent something (water) to a province in the larger national interest.'
