LAHORE, Nov 16: A heated debate began during the opening session of the Punjab Assembly when PPP’s Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan asked as to when the government will recover the salaries and fringe benefits given to the removed advisors and special assistants to the Punjab government and chief minister.
It concluded when Deputy-Speaker Shaukat Mazari supported the law minister and said the Lahore High Court had issued no directions to the government for the recovery. The opposition must appreciate the government for removing the advisors and special assistants in response to the related court orders, he said.
Rana Sanaullah said the court decision had retrospective effect and it was the moral duty of the government to recover the amount paid to the advisors and others.
He said the illegal appointments were made by the chief minister and he must explain in the house as to why he did so. Similarly, it was also chief minister’s responsibility to account for the amount paid to these advisors during the past four years, he stressed.
The law minister said the government would have recovered the amount had the court issued a direction to this effect. Those seeking the recovery could approach the Supreme Court or file an inter-court appeal in the high court for the purpose and the government would implement a decision in letter and spirit.
He said not in a single case a disqualified assembly member had ever repaid the salary he received during his membership. The opposition should not interpret a court decision, he added. When PPP’s Raja Shafqat Abbasi insisted that it was the moral duty of the government to recover the money, the minister retorted as to why he himself did not fulfill a `moral obligation’ by stopping support to the leaders convicted by courts. To this, a rather defensive Mr Abbasi said neither Ms Benazir Bhutto nor Mr Asif Zardari had been convicted. However, he was cornered by the law minister when he could not give names of the consultants, who, Mr Abbasi claimed were being given huge salaries by the government to `interfere’ in the working of 20 departments.
TOKEN BOYCOTT: The joint opposition in the Punjab Assembly staged a brief boycott during of the house proceedings after the rejection of its request that the house should offer fateha for those killed in Bajaur agency and in a military camp in Dargai.
But, before the five-minute boycott, the opposition members belonging to the PPP, PMl-N and MMA themselves offered fateha for the dead. However, the treasury benches did not participate.
The session began two hours behind its schedule, reportedly because of the opposition-government negotiations on the issue in the Business Advisory Committee meeting.
The request for fateha was made by MMA’s Arshad Baggu, who was supported by PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah Khan and others. Law Minister Raja Basharat and Communication Minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin opposed the move, whereas Deputy-Speaker Shaukat Mazari, who was in the chair, gave a cold shoulder to it.
Raja Basharat said the issue had been discussed in the National Assembly and at different other fora, establishing that the attack on a Bajaur Agency mosque was not launched by a foreign force and the perished did not include children. They were being trained for terrorism and therefore it could not be said that innocent civilians had been killed in the attack.
He said it was a controversial matter, asking as to why the opposition wanted to involve the provincial assembly in it when Punjab and the provincial assembly had no link with the Bajaur Agency attack. Those wanted to offer fateha for those killed in the incident could go to Bajaur for the purpose, he suggested sarcastically. The opposition merely wanted to boycott the session by using the event as a pretext, he alleged.
He asked the opposition to offer fateha for all Muslims who died so far and refrain from linking it to the victims of Bajaur Agency and Dargai.
Chaudhry Zaheer said state had to curb subversive activity to fulfill its responsibility of protecting people.
Treasury MPA Malik Ahamd Khan said army had the authority to curb terrorist activity. Bajaur Agency was a free land where there was no court and rule of law.
“This house would not offer fateha for terrorists,” he said, defending the army action.