PML-N raises in National Assembly lapsed ordinances issue

The government did not lay as many as eight ordinances promulgated last year before the Parliament. MNA Zahid Hamid of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday raised the issue of the ordinances on the floor of the National Assembly. He said after promulgation of an Ordinance, it is necessary to get it approved from the parliament within months.
"According to the constitution, it is necessary to present an ordinance in the Parliament after its promulgation. Almost all the eight ordinances have lapsed," he added. He said that the government should lay all the ordinances immediately before the House. He said that this was the last session of the Parliamentary year but the government did not placed the ordinances before the parliament. He claimed that the government was trying to hide these ordinances from the Opposition.
Earlier, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi referred the issue of change in the Zoning Regulations in respect of Zone-III to the concerned standing committee for resolution. Raiz Hussain Pirzada of PML-Q on a calling attention notice invited the attention of the Minister in-charge of the Cabinet Secretariat toward the issue.
He said that large chunks of land have been allotted to VIPs in the name of agriculture farms and a lot of trees have been cut down, defacing the capital city. Minister-in-Charge of the Cabinet Secretariat Ghazanfar Gul while replying the notice told the House that the Apex Court had taken suo motu notice of the constructions in Zone-IV of the CDA and gave judgement on it.
He said the cabinet has constituted a committee comprising three ministers in April 2010 to review the rules of Zone-III under the direction of Apex Court. Nosheen Saeed said that the Committee comprises Federal Ministers, Rehman Malik, Babar Awan and Rahmat Ullha Kakar. "The rules are being relaxed to provide benefits to some people. And the land has been allotted to some people for construction of Houses on Marghala Hills," she claimed.
Aftab Ahmed Sherpao raised the question as to why environment minister was not included in the Committee. He said a housing society is also working in this area. The Advisor could not give satisfactory answer to the House due to which the speaker referred the issue to concerned Standing Committee of the National Assembly.
Marvi Memon of PML-Q condemned the murder of Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, saying that no individual has the right to take the law into his hands and commit murder. "We believe that Pakistani society must not be allowed to be divided on liberal and fundamentalist lines. As Pakistanis, we must protect the rights of all Muslims and non Muslims. Islam teachings regarding protection of minorities' rights are very clear," she said.