LAHORE:Expressing serious dismay over ‘non-serious’ attitude of the PMLN MPAs which resulted in the adjournment of Punjab Assembly session for second consecutive day on Thursday, Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan urged the treasury benches to avoid committing tyranny with National exchequer.
While expressing disappointment over the constant ‘non-serious and devil may care’ attitude of the treasury MPAs, the Speaker PA lamented that despite around four hour delay, the ruling party MPAs had failed to complete the quorum. He said the government itself had summoned the session and must ensure the timely presence of its members. The Speaker noted that the trend of pointing out quorum before the question hour was deeply concerning, adding that such a practice has never been part of parliamentary tradition.
He urged members not to disrupt proceedings before the question hour, reminding them that the delays amount to a burden on the national exchequer. The Speaker highlighted that MPAs draw salaries of around Rs0.6 million and a session costs around Rs50 million to the national exchequer. He pointed out that a single session costs nearly five crore rupees, making repeated delays extremely unfortunate.
Meanwhile, PML-N Chief Whip Rana M Arshad said a parliamentary conference of ruling party legislators was underway in Lahore. He stated that nearly one hundred members were present in the Assembly building and that lawmakers from both sides were expected to reach the House shortly.
Earlier, during the question hour session, Punjab Assembly witnessed sharp exchanges over the provincial education policy. The Speaker PA Malik M Ahmad Khan in his remarks said that private school systems such as Beaconhouse and American School spend around sixty thousand rupees per week on each child, while in public schools across all provinces, only eighty-seven dollars per year are spent on 97 percent of the children.
He noted that Rana Sikandar Hayat, being a man of means, could afford to donate his salary, unlike many others. Opposition member Sardar M Ali Khan strongly criticised the government’s education policy. He said the government had made claims of bringing an educational revolution but had instead cut the education budget. He argued that private institutions had more students than government schools and told the treasury that jumping in the Assembly could not change ground realities.
He urged the government to cut perks for officers from grade nineteen to twenty-one and redirect the savings towards the education sector. Responding to the criticism, Education Minister Rana Sikandar said he was trying to improve the department but was not a superman. He stressed that politics should not interfere with education. The minister said 2.35 million new admissions had been recorded in govt schools and that no public school had been shut down under the current administration.
