Incompetence of Auqaf Minister Ehsan-uddin
MULTAN, Feb 9th:‘Competence’ of another Punjab minister was exposed on Monday after he failed to satisfy the legislators and relied merely on the textual answers sent to him by the officials of his department.Haji Ehsanuddin Qureshi, the provincial minister for Auqaf, elected on a PML-N ticket from Multan, was unable to satisfy the questioners with his answers regarding various issues, including action against land grabbers and drug pushers supported by the Auqaf department officials, appointment of favourites in the Data Darbar affairs committee, utilisation of income generated from shrines etc.Finally, Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal came to the rescue of the Auqaf minister and shifted the entire responsibility towards bureaucracy. He gave the ruling that action be taken against the official who had misguided the House by sending wrong answers of the queries raised by legislators.
The PA session on Monday again started with a delay of one-hour with Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal in chair. Soon after the start of the session, Khalid Asghar Ghural, a PML-Q legislator from Gujrat, on a point of order, condemned the killing of innocent civilians in Karachi and requested the House to offer prayers for them. Fateha was offered in the House for the Karachi blasts victims.
During the question-answer session, which was reserved for the Auqaf department, Sajida Mir, a PPP legislator, asked Ehsanuddin Qureshi concerned to inform the House about the number of members, appointed by the Punjab government for affairsí committee of the Data Darbar.Answering the question, the minister said the said committee comprised 15 members, headed by Senator Ishaq Dar. Sajida Mir insisted that the minister should tell the legislators the names of the committee members.Responding to this, the minister took the names of the committee members which interestingly showed a figure of 24 which also included the names of Ishaq Dar, Sohail Zia Butt, Bilal Yasin, Pir Syed Nazim Hussain Shah and Haji Azizur Rehman Chan.
Ms Sajida, once again, insisted that if the number of the committee members was 24, why the minister initially stated that there were only 15 members.At this, the minister said that when the question was put by the legislator, the committee comprised of 15 members but now its number had reached 24. Regarding the criterion, adopted for the appointment of the committee members, he said the members who had ëspecial devotioní to the shrines were appointed as the members of the committee. This led to a brief uproar in the House and members across the divide started shouting about the mode of appointment mentioned by the minister. Most of the members, on the occasion, stated that they had great respect and devotion for shrines but why they had not been inducted in the committee.The minister, responding to the hue and cry, said that any member aspiring to become the member of the committee would be entertained. Amna Ulfat, a PML-Q legislator, added to the troubles of minister for Auqaf and asked that as per law not more than 10 persons could be appointed in the said committee but why so many members were the part of the single committee.Ehsanuddin, in response Ms Ulfat, said the Data Darbar was one of the biggest and most important shrines of Asia and devotees from all over the world visited it thatís why its committee membersí number was raised. He said the size of the committee had been increased after consultation with the chief minister.To another question regarding the income, generated by the Auqaf department from Data Darbar, the House was told that in the year 2008-9, the government earned Rs 190 millions. After Sajida and Amna Ulfat, it was PML-N MPA from Faisalabad, Anjum Safdar who caused further bewilderment for the Auqaf minister.
Anjum Safdar asked the minister to inform the House whether the land adjacent to the Govt Jamia Chistia High School, Sargodha Road, was owned by the Auqaf Department but had been occupied by the land mafia. Besides, she also questioned what steps had been taken by the government to retrieve the land from the illegal occupants.The minister denied that any land was occupied by the land mafia which invoked severe criticism from PML-N MPA Anjum Safdar for the Auqaf department who said all the answers the minister had given were wrong and she could even show the map of the building constructed on 13 kanals, half of which was occupied by the land grabbers in the garb of ëmajavars.í She said the minister had been misled by the officials of the Auqaf department and wrong answers had been sent to the House which was a mockery of the House. She said the Mazar situated there was a den of drug-pushers whereas the mafia of land grabbers also enjoyed the support of the Auqaf department.After receiving the response from Ms Anjum, the Auqaf minister had to give the verbal assurance of action against the elements involved in land grabbing and repeated this assurance a couple of time when the queries were raised by Seemal Kamran and Amna Ulfat of the PML-Q.Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal also expressed anger for the wrong answers sent to the House by the officials of the Auqaf department. In his ruling, the Speaker said if the answers were proved wrong, stern action be taken against the responsible official.
Talat Yaqoob, a PPP legislator, on a point of order, protested that shines of heroes of 1965 War were not paid due attention, adding that no road was constructed in front of the shrine of Maj Sarwar Shaheed, a martyr of 65 Indo Pak war and Rehana Sarwar, a respected and renowned political figure of the past. While responding to this, the minister assured that he would take up the matter.
Mian Naseer Ahmed, a PML-N legislator from Lahore, asked the minister to inform whether the elements of Auqaf department were involved in helping the land mafia and also allotting the land of department on lease.
Ehsanuddin answered that none of the officials of the department had been involved in the practice. The questioner further asked whether the government had conducted any survey to revive the status of land of the Auqaf department and if not what the future plan was. The Auqaf minister admitted that he was not aware of any such development and if the members of the House had any suggestions, they must be brought into his notice.
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