The opposition in Punjab Assembly recorded severe protest in the House for running the affairs of the gov
ernment through ord
inances instead of proper legislation.
As per the details, senior MPA of PML-N Samiullah Khan on Monday raised the issue of running the gov
ernment through ord
inances while demanding that the Punjab gov
ernment should withdraw all the ord
inances as the practice was done in the National Assembly also and should bring the legislation in the House for proper debate and delibe
rations.
Speaking on the point of order, MPA Samiullah Khan said that this gov
ernment has tried to run the affairs through ord
inances and it is unprecedented in the parliamentary history of Punjab. “The gov
ernment has set a bad example of ord
inances as the House has the extension of 5 ord
inances on the agenda item today while three new ord
inances are also in the gov
ernment business today,” said Samiullah Khan, while criticizing the gov
ernment’s approach of running the House. The gov
ernment sought an extension of 90 days in five ord
inances including The Rawalpindi Women University, Rawalpindi Ord
inance 2019 (IX of 2019), The University of Mianwali Ord
inance 2019 (X of 2019), The Punjab Public Private Partnership Ord
inance 2019 (XI of 2019), The Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions (Reforms) Ord
inance 2019 (XII of 2019) and The Punjab Probation and Parole Service Ord
inance 2019 (XIII of 2019). The gov
ernment also had three new ord
inances including The Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Ord
inance 2019, The Punjab Local Gov
ernment (Amendment) Ord
inance 2019 and The Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Councils (Amendment) Ord
inance 2019 on Monday in the agenda item. As the Deputy
Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari gave a go ahead to the ord
inances, the opposition started chanting slogans against the gov
ernment. “Close down the factory of Ord
inances” were the slogans raised by the opposition while staging walkout from the House. MPA Samiullah Khan said that one can gauge the performance of the ministers where the most experienced and competent minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat is running the affairs through ord
inances. He was of the view that it is for the first time in the parliamentary history of Punjab where the number of pending bills is more than the number of passed bill as there are 20 pending bills while only 18 bills were passed in Punjab Assembly. The gov
ernment did legislation in the absence of the opposition that staged a walkout amid the sloganeering in the House.
Speaking on the occasion, law minister Raja Basharat said that the gov
ernment is bringing the ord
inances under the law and we are not
doing any unconstitutional legislation in this House. Earlier, leader of the opposition Hamza Shehbaz came in the House on production orders issued by
Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi. The PML-N lawmakers accorded warm welcome to Hamza in the House by desk thumping and raising slogans as he came after a gap of five months because the gov
ernment was earlier reluctant to issue his production orders. It seems that the pressure tactics of PML-N worked as the
Speaker issued his production orders immediately after 100 MPAs resigned from the standing committees the other day. The Deputy
Speaker adjourned the House to meet again on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm.