LAHORE, Oct 26: A meeting of the Lahore city district council was adjourned for Saturday following an uproar by opposition members.
The opposition members of the district council were protesting against a woman treasury member presiding over proceedings in the absence of Naib Nazim Farooq Amjad Mir. Mr Farooq Amjad had left the house earlier to receive Turkish President Ahmed Necdet Sezer on his arrival at Lahore after asking lady counciller Ms Parveen Sikandar Gill to hold proceedings.
As soon as Ms Gill took over, Awam-Dost Group member Haji Muhammad Asghar, on a point of order, objected to her presiding over house the proceedings as, according to him, she had been involved in misuse of authority. He alleged that she had utilized the services of a driver of the defunct MCL for several years without any lawful authority. The driver had been drawing his salary from the MCL while performing duty with Ms Parveen Sikandar Gill all these years, he alleged.
Mr Zahid Ali Shah supported Haji Muhammad Asghar and said that a member accused of corruption should not be presiding over a meeting of members representing six million people of Lahore.
Ms Shaheena Asad tried to defend Ms Parveen Sikandar Gill, saying nobody should try to pose himself as Amirul Momineen (commander of the faithful). She was of the opinion that Ms Gill was being targeted for being a woman.
Labour counciller Malik Muhammad Ilyas and Shahid Latif of the Jamaat-i-Islami tried to refute the impression, saying that all members respected the female colleagues.
Sensing the aggressive mood of the opposition member, Ms Parveen Sikandar Gill adjourned the house proceedings for Saturday morning.
The proceedings of the district council remained suspended for some time in the morning due to lack of quorum. The lack of quorum was pointed out by Zahid Ali Shah, an Awam Dost Group Nazim of Muslimabad union council.
Earlier, Tariq Sana Bajwa presented his report on house committees. He recommended that the number of committees should be raised from 15 to 25. He suggested that the district Nazim and Naib Nazim should have powers to nominate members of house committees. He also recommended that the house committee members should be nominated from among ladies and minority councillers in accordance with their numerical strength.
Ms Rozina Tufail said that there should be a ban on dual membership of the house committee. Haji Mukhtar Butt said the senior members should be given priority in selection for house committees.
PML-N leader Khwaja Salman Rafique said there was no use of carrying out a futile exercise like the formation of a house committee when the house was not aware of its powers.
The house adopted a resolution urging the provincial government to issue a notification on powers of arbitration councils without any delay. The resolution moved by Asghar Butt of the PML-N also demanded handing over of the record of these councils to UC secretaries.