LAHORE, Nov 21: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has taken notice of quorum problem during the ongoing session of the Punjab Assembly. At a parliamentary party meeting of the ruling PML here on Monday, he directed all MPAs to ensure their participation in the legislative process.

Some participants in the meeting, however, claimed that notices had been issued to 25 ministers who used to remain absent from the house proceedings. Many of these ministers were seen attending Monday’s session, they said.

They said the chief minister took no notice of Najaf Sial’s act of causing an embarrassment to the treasury benches by pointing out quorum in the house a couple of days ago and criticizing ministers, parliamentary secretaries, etc. for enjoying all perks but taking no interest in the business.

Two resolutions were also moved in the meeting.

In the first resolution, presented by provincial minister Basharat Raja, the assistance given in the donors conference in Islamabad was welcomed, and it was observed that the world community had showed confidence in the personalities and foreign policy of Gen Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

In the second resolution by Basharat Raja, tributes were paid to the services of PML president Shujaat Husain and Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi in relief and rehabilitation of quake victims.

PA session: The opposition on Monday walked out of the house to protest against what it said incomplete, wrong and vague information being submitted to the house by Parliamentary Health Secretary Dr Farzana Nazir during the Question Hour.

The protesters, however, returned to the house when Deputy Speaker Sardar Shaukat Husain Mazari, who was holding the chair at that time, sent Colonies Minister Manazir Ranjha to bring them back.

During the walkout, Dr Farzana suggested to the chair that the protesters should be penalized for making a mockery of the house business.

Another ruling party member, Dr Samia Amjad, urged the chair to continue proceedings of the house during the walkout.

Answering a supplementary question about recovery of Rs22.4 million from some drug firms for providing expired medicines, the parliamentary secretary earlier said that a sum of Rs22 million had so far been recovered.

But when PPP’s Haji Ijaz and PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah contested the claim and vowed to move a privilege motion against her, she asserted that they (the opposition members) could not understand her as she was saying that the amount was yet to be recovered.

Dr Nadia Aziz said as Dr Farzana was responding poorly to the queries about her department, the chair must get the latter’s graduation degree checked if it was bogus.

Azma Bokhari alleged that the parliamentary secretary used to get personal while responding to each query, although the latter knew nothing about her department.

It provoked Dr Farzana as she started speaking non-stop against the opposition members some of whom also stood up uttering something which could not be heard in galleries.

There was so much noise in the house that the chair had to repeat 11 times that the time for the Question Hour was over.

Owing to prolonged discussion only two questions could be taken up during this time.

Earlier, Rana Sana protested that answer to a written question had been given by the department too late and demanded a ruling from the chair on it.

But Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja said the department had provided the answer four months ago and it could not be processed by the Assembly Secretariat earlier.

CALL ATTENTION NOTICES: The house took up two call attention notices on Monday.

Replying to the first notice by Haji Ijaz about the body of a youth recovered in Harbancepura, Lahore, in a sack on Nov 16, the law minister said the deceased had been identified as Naeem and he had been strangled with a rope.

He said the Harbancepura police station had registered an FIR on an application by the deceased’s brother. Two accused, Akhtar and Arshad, had been nominated in the case but they were so far untraceable.

On another notice by Lala Shakeelur Rahman and Chaudhry Zahid Pervaiz about kidnap and murder of a woman in Gujranwala on Nov 15, the law minister said she had been murdered with a knife. However, her postmortem report had not yet been received.

He denied that Gujranwala had registered an increase in kidnap for ransom and murder cases.