The government has abolished the Punjab Assembly’s independent status, placing it under the jurisdiction of the Law Department. The Punjab Assembly has once again been designated as a special institute by the Law Department, which will now issue all notifications pertaining to the Punjab Assembly. The services of Punjab Assembly Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti have also been transferred to the Law Department. Bhatti has been the Secretary of the Punjab Provincial Assembly since 2008. Later, Punjab government spokesman Ataullah Tarar stated that the Punjab Assembly (PA) speaker’s authority to punish civil bureaucrats has been clipped. He told a press conference in Lahore alongside another PML-N leader, Malik Ahmed Khan, that no journalist would be barred from entering the assembly building or punished from now on. “Similarly, whenever the governor convenes the assembly, the law secretary will issue the notification,” he added. He went on to say that the PML-N had nothing to gain from the budget presentation. “We convened the session only because we don’t want the people of Punjab to suffer,” he clarified. Tarar stated that the government has killed three birds with one stone by repealing the three ordinances mentioned above with the issuance of a single ordinance.
Tarar stated that the PTI had linked the holding of the budget session to the withdrawal of cases filed against them. Speaking on the occasion, Malik Ahmed Khan blamed delays in the budget session on the ego of PA Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
