No peace without ending terrorism, says law minister

* Rana Sanaullah says those opposing operation against terrorists and calling them martyrs should be dissuaded 

* Opposition leader says girls being sold out but CM not paying attention to province 

LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has said the people who are opposing the operation against terrorists and calling them shaheed (martyrs) should be dissuaded, as ending terrorism is necessary for improving law and order situation in society.

He was commenting on the issues highlighted by Opposition Leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed about the recent criminal cases of gang-rape with a girl for five days in Chiniot, death of a woman after police torture in Sheikhupura and the self-immolation by a raped student against injustice of police in Muzaffargarh, during the Punjab Assembly session on Tuesday.

Opposition legislators strongly condemned the poor law and order situation, typical thana culture and bad governance in Punjab, and staged a joint token walkout from the assembly chamber for five minutes in protest.

The opposition leader claimed that girls were being sold out in the province but the chief minister was not paying attention to his domain. He demanded that Shahbaz Sharif should – instead of dealing with federal matters – give time to the province.

On this, the law minister said that the government of Punjab was alert on the crimes and had been appointing district-level police officials after getting their reports from intelligence agencies.

He further stated that the Punjab chief minister paid visit to the rape victim’s home in Muzaffargarh and took action against the DPO for his negligence in the case.

The Punjab Assembly’s session on Tuesday started one hour and five minutes late from its schedule time of 10 am.

The session was chaired by Deputy Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani. The House adopted the question hour about the Agriculture Department and Minister Dr Farukh Javed answered to the queries.

A treasury member, Sheikh Allauddin, on a point of order criticised the media, saying that some of the columnists were levelling baseless allegations against the lawmakers, that they (MPAs) were involved in supporting thieves and appointing their blue-eyed SHOs in the police stations of their own constituencies.

He said that such columnists were blackmailers who were accusing the MPAs, and that they should be asked to tell how they made huge properties.

Some other legislators from the treasury benches, including Waris Kallu and Malik Ahmad, also endorsed their colleague. Sheikh Allauddin also said that he would move a privilege motion against them and the deputy speaker agreed to it.

A minority member from the treasury benches, Ramesh Singh Arora, moved an adjournment motion in which he raised the issue of killing and kidnapping of members of the Sikh community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the motion, he requested the federal government to take notice of the issue and hold talks with the province on the issue. The chair pended the motion.

During the session, the House also passed a resolution about a demand to the federal government that it should issue blue passports to provincial assembly members, like they were being issued to the National Assembly members.

The House also passed four other resolutions, including making laws to stop teachers’ torture on students at public schools and introducing the basic life support and fire safety training to students in all educational institutes. A resolution was also passed, condemning the Islamabad courts blast. A resolution for terming compulsory a certificate from the authority concerned for any residential schemes to be advertised in newspapers was also passed in the session.

Later the chair adjourned the session until today (Wednesday) at 10 am.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/punjab/19-Mar-2014/no-peace-without-ending-terrorism-says-law-minister