LAHORE, Sept 26: In a dramatic move by the opposition benchers, the district council of Lahore on Wednesday passed a resolution condemning deportation of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and terming the government’s action illegal and unconstitutional.
Amid rumpus and furore, the meeting also demanded that all political leaders and workers, especially members of the district council, arrested in connection with the ongoing crackdown on opposition parties should be released.
The district council remained in session for an hour or so though it was called after over three months.
Sohail Mahmood Butt, who was presiding over the session because of indisposition of District Naib Nazim Idrees Hanif, had to adjourn the session for indefinite period when opposition members stood in front of him and started raising slogans ‘go Musharraf go’.
Majid Zahoor of the PML-N moved the resolution on Nawaz’s deportation when some 100 or so members of the district council were present at Jinnah Hall. All the opposition members started raising slogans in favour of the resolution. Within seconds, the resolution was declared unanimously adopted by the chair, leaving the treasury benches stunned.
Another opposition member, Akbar Khan, had drawn the attention of the house towards what he termed “uncalled for” detention of union council 32 Nazim Sheikh Amin.
“Our colleague has been detained by Mughalpura police merely because he is a political worker,” he said while demanding his release.
Another member, Chaudhry Abdul Mannan, informed the meeting that UC-111 Nazim Mehr Mahmood and some other political workers, including Waheed Alam, Amir Sarwar and Chaudhry Manzoor, had also been detained by the police.
He urged the chair to contact senior police officers in order to ensure early release of the arrested members so that they could attend the council’s ongoing session.
Highlighting poor sanitation in his area, Mannan also drew the attention of the chair towards absence of City District Government officers from the house.
“Except for two, all senior CDGL officers left the meeting three minutes after it started. I request you to ensure presence of all CDG officers in the house,” he said while thanking the chair to give him a chance to speak in the meeting after two years or so.
An attempt by a treasury member, Hamid Khan, to move a resolution in favour of President General Pervez Musharraf triggered another rumpus in the meeting as opposition members started shouting ‘shame, shame’ and ‘go Musharraf go’ rhetoric. Opposition’s women councillors were the first to gather in front of the chair to lodge their protest against the resolution.
After failure to calm down the furious opposition benchers, Sohail Butt had no option except to adjourn the session for indefinite period. However, all items on agenda had been discussed by that time.
Earlier, there was another shock for the treasury benches when opposition members foiled the treasury’s attempt to name a thoroughfare that connects Hussain Chowk with Workshop Chowk on Guru Mangat Road in Gulberg after the late Mian Mahmood Ali Kasuri, the father of Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri.
The opposition also succeeded in getting the Upper Mall area’s Scotch Corner Road named after the late Maulana Hasan Jan.
The thoroughfare adjacent to Home Economics College in Gulberg was named after renowned educationist the late Dr Mateen Fatima, who was the first Pakistani woman to complete a PhD. The thoroughfare connecting Allama Iqbal Town’s main boulevard with Hasrat Mohani Road in union council 104 was named after renowned Naatkhwan the late Hafeez Taib.
The meeting unanimously approved creation of a BS-1 post of gardener at Kashana Welfare Centre, up-gradation of two BS-17 posts of fire officers to BS-18 and three BS-14 posts of assistant fire officers to BS-16.
The resolution moved by Farah Deeba Butt to declare Lahore and St Petersburg twin cities was also adopted without any debate.
Amid rumpus, Sohail Butt declared that the new building bylaws and zoning regulations rules, approved by the Punjab government, would be applicable in the jurisdiction of the city district government of Lahore.