** PML-N MPAs met CM to get position on privileges committee, says minister*
LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Monday approved 21 of 27 clauses of the New Murree Development Authority Bill 2003 after a clause-by-clause reading.
All the amendments moved by the opposition were rejected.
Punjab Minister for Law and Local Bodies Raja Muhammad Basharat told the house that the government planned to construct a new city in Murree tehsil to promote tourism. Responding to an objection from the opposition, he said New Murree City would be constructed on 2,000 acres owned by the Punjab government, so there was no need to buy land from private owners.
Mr Basharat said the city would require minimal destruction of forests so that the beauty of the area remained intact. Foreign consultants and experts would be invited to develop the city plan. “The populace of Murree tehsil and Kotli Satyyan will also benefit from this project,” he said.
The minister said that New Murree City was a government sponsored project in which there was no involvement of the private sector, as in New Islamabad City. The opposition had complained that the proposed Murree Development Authority was the same as the Capital Development Authority, against which there were complaints of financial embezzlement.
The minister said the Murree Development Authority would be authorised to use all the funds obtained in property tax and other taxes and that a large portion of these funds would be spent on the development of old Murree City. (Who or what will finance the projects in the new City then, and what about the maintanance costs??? :konfused: ) The opposition demanded that the tehsil municipal authorities of Murree and Kotli Satyyan be authorised to use half the funds obtained from New Murree City in taxes, and that before the city is built, Murree and Kotli Satyyan should be developed. Mr Basharat said the new city would be supplied water from the Jehlum River, and the old Murree would also get water from this new source.
Opposition members including Raja Muhammad Shafqat Khan Abbasi, Ehsanullah Waqas, Arshad Mahmood Baggu, Muhammad Wasim Khan, Zaibunnisa Qureshi and Tahira Munir proposed a sub-committee be set up to maintain the integrity of the project.
They also demanded more high schools for boys and girls and hospitals be built in Murree and Kotli Satyyan and that forests in the area not be disturbed.
Meanwhile, Minister Muhammad Raja Basharat told the Punjab Assembly that seven Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members met Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and asked him to appoint a PML-N legislator to an assembly privileges committee.
The seven legislators claimed earlier they had only met Mr Elahi to seek permission for the PML-N’s Sheikh Amjad Aziz to go abroad for an operation.
Mr Basharat said the seven PML-N legislators were Bilal Yasin, Amjad Aziz, Ajasam Sharif, Sheikh Ejaz, Dr Mukhtar Burg, Malik Nawaz and Azam Afzal Khokar. He said at the meeting with the Punjab chief minister on January 2, they asked for development funds and for a no-objection certificate for Mr Aziz’s treatment abroad. He said the government did not politicise the meeting between opposition members and the chief minister, but the opposition members were lying.
PML-N Parliamentary leader Rana Sanaullah Khan said on a point of order that the opposition did not need to ask the chief minister for the development funds. He said that the treasury offered the opposition members privileges and development funds if they voted in favour of Pervez Musharraf, but were refused.
Mr Khan said the PML-N loved Mian Nawaz Sharif and would wait for his return for another ten years. They could not leave their party chief in this problematic situation, who would come and rule Pakistan again. He said the treasury and opposition had decided three months ago they would not badmouth each other’s leaders. The agreement would no longer stand if Mr Sharif was criticised, he added.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-1-2004_pg7_7
We definitely need live coverage of these clowns to enliven our TV lounges. :rolleyes: