Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPAs) of Punjab belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came down hard on their own government during Friday’s session of the assembly, as they complained of missing facilities.
PTI lawmaker from Muzaffargarh Niaz Hussain Khan Gishkori lamented over missing facilities in his constituency, saying 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 government,” 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 adding 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 government could be seen by the fact that not a single minister bothered to respond to him. Another PTI MPA, Uzma Kardar, also criticised the government, saying that heaps of garbage could be seen everywhere on the roads of Lahore, which was damaging the beauty of the provincial capital. She wondered why the government had awarded the contract to remove garbage from the roads to foreign companies and why the government didn’t engage the local firms. She also demanded an audit of those foreign companies. Responding the queries of Kardar, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government and Community Development Ahmad Khan Bhachar said the government could not make any change to the contract of those companies until 2020 as per the agreements signed with them by the previous government. 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.
Complaining against the performance of the Local Government Department, an MPA from Okara, Muneeb-ul-Haq, said that there was no proper landfill in his district, and that garbage would be seen everywhere on the roads of the city.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member from Sahiwal Arshad Malik said that the government had acquired 80 kanals of land from the tenants to build a model graveyard, but they were not paid by the government even after handing over their land. He said the graveyard was still to be built there. Bhachar said that the Local Government 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 government failed to meet the required number of MPAs to run the House and the session was prorogued for an indefinite period.