LAHORE, Sept 15: The treasury was quite accommodating on the private members day on Wednesday as every bill or resolution that was tabled in the house sailed through to the standing committee concerned without any objection or resistance.
Interestingly, all three privilege motions earlier moved by treasury members were referred to the standing committee on privileges as law minister Raja Basharat did not oppose them.
They had been moved by Faisal Hayat Jabuana, Kanwal Naseem and Arif Mahmood Gill against Motorway PO Khalid Nawaz, Lahore Wasa MD Inam Qadir, and Parks and Horticulture Authority DG Shabbir Ahmad, respectively.
The Forest (Amendment) Bill, the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Privileges (Amendment) Bill moved by Shaheena Asad, the Punjab Education Foundation (Amendment) Bill, the University of Central Punjab Lahore (Amendment) Bill and the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Privileges (Amendment) Bill moved by Rana Sanaullah were referred to the respective standing committees as the ministers concerned did not oppose them.
An interesting situation was created when education minister Imran Masood opposed the bill regarding the central Punjab university. MMA's Ehsanullah Waqas claimed that he could state under oath that the minister had twice assured him that he would not oppose the bill in the house.
The minister withdrew his objection and submitted to the chair that the bill could be referred to the standing committee on education. The house also adopted a resolution recommending to the government that Fort Munro should be developed on the pattern of New Murree.
Opposition's Asghar Ali Qaiser said on a point of order that resolutions should be excluded from house business because these were not implemented by the government. Samiullah Khan chipped in saying that this should not be done because the resolution passed by the house on uniform a couple of days back would surely be implemented if not any other.
Through another resolution, the government was urged to pay Rs750 per month as computer allowance to its data entry operators. Yet another resolution recommended to the government university status for the Nishtar Medical College.