Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPAs) of Punjab belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came down hard on their own go
vernment during Friday’s session of the assembly, as they co
mplained of missing facilities.
PTI lawmaker from Muzaffargarh Niaz Hussain Khan Gishkori lamented over missing facilities in his constituency, sayi
ng that he had no answer for his voters when they asked him about the health and other basic facilities for their area. “I remained silent for nine months in this House, but now I am unable to face my voters of Muzaffargarh because I couldn’t do anything for my area despite the fact that I represent the go
vernment,” he said.
Speaking on a point of order, Gishkori said that several ministers, chief minister and governor got elected from Muzaffargarh and remained in the power corridors, but the fate of the area didn’t change at all because the people were still suffering from waterborne diseases. “My district was badly hit during the flood of 2010, but still my people are waiting for compensation,” he said, while addi
ng that there was only one hospital in his area for a population of 130,000.
He also demanded that a committee of the House be constituted to address the problems of his area. The apathy of the go
vernment could be seen by the fact that not a single minister bothered to respond to him. Another PTI MPA, Uzma Kardar, also criticised the go
vernment, sayi
ng that heaps of garbage could be seen every
where on the roads of Lahore, which was damaging the beauty of the provincial capital. She wondered why the go
vernment had awarded the
contract to remove garbage from the roads to foreign companies and why the go
vernment didn’t engage the local firms. She also demanded an audit of those foreign companies. Responding the queries of Kardar, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Go
vernment and Community Development Ahmad Khan Bhachar said the go
vernment could not make any change to the
contract of those companies until 2020 as per the agreements signed with them by the previous go
vernment. Uzma Kardar further said that sanitary workers set ablaze heaps of garbage instead of dumping them, so the department concerned should take action against them.
Co
mplaining against the performance of the Local Go
vernment Department, an MPA from Okara, Muneeb-ul-Haq, said that there was no proper landfill in his district, and that garbage would be seen every
where on the roads of the city.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member from Sahiwal Arshad Malik said that the go
vernment had acquired 80 kanals of land from the tenants to build a model graveyard, but they were not paid by the go
vernment even after handing over their land. He said the graveyard was still to be built there. Bhachar said that the Local Go
vernment Department had sent a summary to Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and work on the model graveyard would soon be started. The lawmakers of both the treasury and opposition benches seemed relaxed when the panel Mian Muhammad Shafi was chairing the House, as most of the MPAs seemed gossiping and making noise in the House. As the House was in progress smoothly, a woman MPA of the PML-N, Zaibun Nisa Awan? pointed out the quorum. The go
vernment failed to meet the required number of MPAs to run the House and the session was prorogued for an indefinite period.