Plaza scam causes disorder in PA

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
By Faizan Bangash

LAHORE: The plaza scam, allegedly involving Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, led to complete disorder in the Punjab Assembly on Monday.

The Opposition members kept interrupting the proceedings while repeatedly pointing out the quorum and Speaker Rana Mohammed Iqbal Khan had to adjourn the session till Tuesday amid slogans of ‘shame shame’ from the treasury benches.

The situation got tense in the pre-budget session when Mohsin Leghari, a PML-Q legislator, cited a media report which alleged the law minister of owning a commercial plaza. He asked Rana Sana to give his view regarding the allegation.

The law minister said the report was based on bad intentions and alleged that Khalid Abdul Rehman, the real player behind the report, had himself ripped of millions of rupees from various people. He said the place which had been termed as his (Sana’s) plaza consisted of only six marlas. He said his chamber and residence were situated at that building and there was no shop or any commercial activity in that building.

Sanaullah said that the map of that building was approved at a time when he was in the Opposition and claimed that he could sacrifice 1,000 such buildings if anything in it clashed with the commitment of Mian Shahbaz Sharif regarding the rule of law.

However, the law minister’s answer could not satisfy the Opposition and Mohsin, on a point of order, further cited the news item, saying that the place owned by the law minister was more than shown in the map.

This infuriated the law minister who initially termed the point, raised by Mohsin, regretful and then criticised the Opposition members for making a personal attack on him.

The situation got further tense when Rana Sanaullah said if the Opposition kept going for personal scorings, we would also let people know ‘whose grandfather made properties and whose transport business continued here’.

Mohsin Leghari and a few more members protested against the remarks of the law minister. Mohsin urged the Speaker to take notice of the personal comments regarding one’s ‘grandfather.’

The opposition members, namely their leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, Deputy Opposition Leader Muhammad Yar Hiraj, Sher Ali Khan, Seemal Kamran, Amna Ulfat, Khadija Umer, Samina Khawar Hayat and Shafiq Khan, boycotted the proceedings.

At the time when the Opposition was leaving the floor, Mohsin Leghari pointed out quorum which invoked severe criticism from the treasury members.The bells were rung after the pointing of quorum and it was found sufficient to run the proceedings.