News
Monday, July 12, 2010
Rs 10m spent on 370 PA members in 10 days for ‘doing nothing’By Raja Riaz
LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly members have made more than Rs 10 million from the public exchequer, collected from tax-payers, for doing ‘nothing’ in the current session of the Punjab Assembly.
The 19th session of the current provincial session was summoned for July 5 by the Punjab Governor, Salmaan Taseer, through a notification. According to the Assembly Rules of Procedure 1997, a member is entitled to get Rs 2,650 as daily allowance. This allowance is not given from the day of commencement of the session, rather the clock starts three days prior to this. The assembly members get this allowance for another three days after the last sitting of the session. The assembly secretariat also pays this allowance to members on days when the assembly is in session but not working. Normally the assembly holds its sittings from Monday to Friday, and Saturday and Sunday are non-working days.
The members are also given a travel allowance. This amount is paid at a rate of Rs five per kilometre. The travel allowance is measured by the distance of the constituency of a member from the assembly building and multiplied by two. This allowance is paid once in a session.
At the moment, the total number of members in the Punjab Assembly is 370 as a seat is going due to the resignation of Shumaila Rana, a PML-N legislator elected on a reserved seat for women.
If calculated, these 370 legislators of the provincial assembly have become ‘entitled’ to daily allowance for 10 days. Every member has ‘earned’ Rs 26,500, for which the total amount of 370 members is 9,844,000. The travel allowance of all the members is estimated at about Rs 500,000. Thus the total amount ‘earned’ by the members has crossed the Rs 10 million mark.
The speaker, chief minister, ministers and parliamentary secretaries, however, do not get the allowances as they get salaries, house rent, official vehicles, drivers, personal assistants, clerks and other perks and privileges. These perks and privileges, if calculated, go well into millions of rupees. To keep the matter simple this scribe shall calculate their allowances as being equivalent to an ordinary member during the session.
The prime and foremost duty of a legislature is legislation and keeping vigil on the government. It is evident that these allowances are given to the members to perform their prime duty of legislation besides other business.
It is a painful fact that the legislators from the Punjab have done nothing in these ten days but pass a few resolutions only. They did not make a new law in the current session rather deferred the matter to next day in each sitting. The Assembly Secretariat put legislation on the agenda for every sitting but it was never taken up by the House. The only example is a bill that was debated but could not be passed due to a lack of quorum. Pertinent to mention here is that to keep quorum complete during government business is the responsibility of the government as the opposition never wants to pass the bills moved by the government.
What have the legislators of Punjab done in the current session and to what extent have the items on the agenda been completed, may be assessed by the following study.
Agenda for day 1 (Monday, July 5):
Question Hour: Questions relating to revenue and colonies (Board of Revenue Department). Call Attention Notices entered in the separate list to be asked and oral answers given.
Government Business: The Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010 (bill no. 5 of 2010), The King Edward Medical University (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill No. 11 of 2010), The Punjab Land Revenue (amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill No. 9 of 2010)
Assembly Performance: The Punjab Assembly members did not take up a single item on the agenda and the Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister sought permission from the chair to present a resolution by suspending the rules of procedure of the House. The permission was granted and a joint resolution to condemn the terrorist attack on Data Darbar was passed. The resolution also was supported by the PML-Q, the PPP and other smaller parties in the House. The members spoke for about four hours on the resolution that got passed unanimously.
It is important to mention that Call Attention Notice is an important agenda item in which the members ask the question on a latest happening and the chief minister himself is supposed to reply to that question. The chief minister never performs that duty, and the law minister always speaks on his behalf.
Agenda for day 2 (Tuesday, July 6):
Question Hour: Questions relating to the Agriculture Department
Private Members Business: The In-House Working Women Protection Bill 2010 (Bill No. 12 of 2010) presented by Seemal Kamran and Amna Ulfat
Resolutions by Mohsin Leghari, Zubia Rubab Malik, Samina Khawar Hayyat and Samina Naveed advocate.
Assembly Performance: Tuesday is always private members’ day and the House takes up the business of the private members on this day. The movers of the bill, Seemal Kamran and Amna Ulfat, both from the PML-Q, introduced The In-House Working Women’s Protection Bill 2010 before the House that was sent to the relevant Standing Committee by the Speaker. The House took up the resolutions of four opposition members: Sardar Mohsin Khan Leghari, Zobia Rubab Malik, Samina Khawar Hayyat and Samina Naveed advocate. The House adopted one resolution, one was disposed of and the remaining two were deferred.
Agenda for day 3 (Wednesday, July 7):
Question Hour: Questions relating to the Higher Education Department.
Government Business: Motion under rule 244-a of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997. Amendment in sub-rule (1) of Rule 148 of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997.
The Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill no. 5 of 2010).
The King Edward Medical University (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill no. 11 of 2010)
The Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill no. 9 of 2010)
Assembly Performance: Besides questions and other agenda items, four items were also enlisted on the day’s business but soon after the Question Hour, the speaker gave the forum to PML-N legislator Shaukat Bhatti. His speech opened a front against the media and every member present in the House put his share in the war against media. The lawmakers spoke for about three hours and the speaker who is always reluctant to give the floor to the members to raise a point of order was so generous that he gave the floor to every member who wished to speak. The important fact is that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was also generous enough to assure his presence either in the House or in his chamber during this ‘valuable debate’.
Another interesting fact is that the standing committees concerned had given their report on the Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010, the King Edward Medical University (Amendment) Bill 2010 and the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2010, but for the members, cursing other members in the presence of their leader was most important.
Agenda for day 4 (Thursday, July 8):
Question Hour: Questions relating to the Local Government and Community Development Department.
Call Attention Notice, Motion under Rule 244-a of ‘The Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997 to make amendment in sub-rule (1) of Rule 148 of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997.
Government Business: The Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill no. 5 of 2010), The Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill no. 9 of 2010), The Punjab Public-Private Partnership for Infrastructure Bill 2009 (Bill no. 29 of 2009) and The Women’s University Multan Bill 2010 (Bill No. 4 of 2010).
Assembly Performance: It is the only day when the legislators did a little bit of work as they passed the amendment in the assembly rules of procedure. The amendment was very ‘important’ –the name of ‘Punjab Assembly Standing Committee on Law’ was changed to Punjab Assembly Standing Committee on Law, Prosecution and Human Rights.
The chief minister spoke on the water issue and lauded the role of the media in the revival of democracy. The House however could not pass any bill as the opposition made a successful attempt of pointing out the quorum at a moment when the speaker was going to put the law before the House for vote. The lawmakers were not there at the time of the lawmaking.
Agenda for day 5 (Friday, July 9):
Question Hour: Questions relating to the Home Department.
Government Business: The Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill No. 5 of 2010), Resumption of clause-by-clause consideration (from clause 2) of the Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010, The Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill No. 9 of 2010), The Punjab Public-Private Partnership For Infrastructure Bill 2009 (Bill No. 29 of 2009) and The Women’s University Multan Bill 2010 (Bill No. 4 of 2010).
Assembly Performance: These important bills were present on the agenda and the lawmakers were supposed to dilate upon them but something interesting happened: the whole House once again lamented on the media’s role, made history by passing a resolution flaying the role of the media. They did not stop here but tried to fight physically with the journalists.
This is what the Punjab Assembly members have done in the current session against expenditures of more than Rs 10 million.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk