LAHORE, June 3: The Punjab Assembly on Thursday passed the New Murree Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2004 amid criticism by the opposition for not including the amendments proposed by its members to the law.

PPP's Shafqat Abbasi said that he had submitted an amendment to the bill which had not been included. The chair informed him that his amendment had been killed because it was not relevant and was out of scope.

Mr Abbasi said he had proposed that instead of making another secretary ex-officio member of the authority either the tehsil Nazim or the MPA should be included. He said the term scope had not been defined and his proposal was relevant. The Nazim or the MPA have mandate of the people of the area.

He wondered that who draft bills as neither the assembly nor any house committee makes any changes in them. He also asked why the government was pressing for the passage of the bill on an emergency basis.

He claimed that the project would have serious environmental effects as the forests around Patriata on 3,000 acres would be cut down. Over 300,000 trees, which were more than a hundred year old, would be cut to build New Murree but the planners did not bother.

Mr Baggu said the opposition had proposed when the bill was presented before the house three months ago that some procedure should be followed. The bill should be advertised to seek public opinion, referred to the special committee and then presented before the house.

The procedure was not followed and the bill was passed in haste which necessitated changes. Furthermore, most amendments made to the bill had been moved by the opposition, he said.

He said the opposition was not against the establishment of new cities but experts should be consulted. Mr Baggu said the elected representatives should be made non-official members of the authority.

Deputy opposition leader Rana Sanaullah said that minor amendments had been made to the bill. Insertion and deletion of a word or two make no difference. Matters of public interest were the police order and the local government ordinance. There were certain confusions in the two laws which needed to be removed.

He said if the government wanted to prove that it had done record legislation by getting such bills passed, it should table 100 such bills. Rana Sana said the matter of concern was the state of affairs in the education sector.

In rural areas of his constituency, there were schools having no building, lacking facilities like drinking water and latrine, no teachers and 115 students in a class. The government claimed that education had been made free for all.

Dr Muzaffar said that a sum of Rs7 billion had been allocated for the provision of missing facilities in the schools of the province. The funds would be utilized through the MPAs.

On a point of order, Sheikh Ejaz Ahmad said that funds were allocated but it was yet to be known where these were being spent. Denying that the opposition criticizes treasury for the sake of criticism, he said they were ready to support every constructive move of the government which would be in the interest of the masses.

Dr Waseem said it would have been better if Fort Munnro was also developed on the pattern of New Murree. Raja Basharat thanked the house for extending cooperation in the passage of the bill.

He said some developments had necessitated an amendment to the bill. Tourism was part of the forest department when the bill was first moved. Later, the cabinet decided to separate tourism from the forest department and make its administrative secretary member of the authority.

Regarding the move to seek early passage of the bill, the minister said the government wanted to start work on the project at the earliest. He said that credit went to both the treasury and the opposition if more legislation was done.

He was optimistic that the chief minister would nominate elected representative as non-official members of the authority. He requested the chair to reject the objection raised by the opposition and allow voting on the bill.

After voting the speaker declared that the bill had been passed and adjourned the session till 9am on Friday (today).

Speaker and MPA's cell phone

LAHORE, June 3: Speaker Afzal Sahi took notice when the cell phone of an MPA rang during the Punjab Assembly session on Thursday. Law Minister Raja Basharat was appreciating the cooperation extended by the house for the passage of the New Murree Development Authority (Amendment) Bill when the cell phone of an MPA started ringing a musical tone.

"Stop the music. Raja Sahib is not singing a song. He is delivering a speech," annoyed Afzal Sahi said. The speaker seemed to be fed up with the use of cell phones by MPAs during session, ignoring all his requests in this regard.