Speaker-led Punjab PA legislates sans Hamza govt.

LAHORE -- The Punjab Assembly session convened by Speaker Parvez Elahi passed the Punjab Free and CompulAsory Education (Amendment) Bill 2020 in the absence of the law minister and any member of the treasury, who were holding a parallel session in a nearby official building here on Tuesday.

The private bill was moved by Mian Shafi Muhammad. It was supported by members from both sides of the aisle and then referred to the standing committee on school education in December 2020. The panel had accorded its approval, yet the draft had been pending since then.

The bill's movers back then included the PTI's Mian Shafi, Sadia Sohail Rana, Sabrina Javed, Malik Wasiq Mazhar, Shahina Karim, Farah Agha and Shamim Aftab; PML-N's Kanwal Pervaiz Chaudhry, Raheela Naeem, Uzma Qadri, Haseena Begum and Aswa Aftab; and PPP's Shazia Abid. Of them, the PML-N and PPP lawmakers were missing on Tuesday.

During the latest session, Mian Shafi said Article 25A of the Constitution obliged the state to ensure free and compulsory education for children between the ages of five and 16 years. A law for the purpose was passed in October 2014 but had yet to be implemented. The amendment bill demanded the law be notified and rules framed for its implementation, he added.

Thin attendance seen in treasury-only sitting

Meanwhile, opposition leader Sibtain Khan of the PTI chided the treasury for not presenting the provincial budget in the session being held at the assembly chambers even though the speaker had invited the minister in charge for the finance department, Sardar Awais Leghari.

He also requested the speaker to limit the proceedings of the ongoing 41st session of the house to a day, as due to their engagements in the assembly they were unable to campaign for the by-polls on 20 PA seats.

PTI MPA Ahmad Khan Bhachhar claimed the government was holding an 'unconstitutional' session at Aiwan-i-Iqbal because it believed it could not muster enough support to get the budget passed from the house. He said the ruling PML-N had set another wrong precedent by conducting a session outside the assembly building.

Former agriculture minister Hussain Jahanian Gardezi regretted that for the first time the government had allowed police to enter the Punjab Assembly.

Musarrat Cheema, Momina Waheed, Abbas Shah and Sajida also spoke during the session after which the speaker put off the proceedings for a week, and the house would now meet again on June 28.

Parallel sitting

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