PPP plays cool; Opp spills pearls of wisdom for coalition

LAHORE - Members Punjab Assembly belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party virtually played it cool and controlled tempers - if there were any - regarding the press talk of a PML-N minister accusing the PPP Governor of holding parties at the official residence where alcohol was served, and putting question mark on the family pictures.
At the Punjab Assembly here on Wednesday, both sides of the ruling coalition - once arch rivals - did not give much room to the opposition to play up the issue virtually reducing it to spilling pearls of wisdom though it was expected that the Assembly could become noisy after Minister Law Rana Sana Ullah’s levelled allegations on the last Tuesday against Salman Taseer for indulging in unethical activities and holding parties at the Governor’s House.
It all started when a parliamentarian maintained that the coalition should change its attitude, and must be positive.
“When a dissension between the government and the governor is portrayed, then wrong signals are sent to the bureaucracy, which ultimately leads to the disrepute of the parliament,” said the member.
Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan observed that the members should not indulge in point scoring.
However, Senior Minister Raja Riaz Ahmed was quick to respond, and said the issue regarding the Governor and his family’s picture was a misconception.
“Governor Punjab is a constitutional head of the province, and is functioning as a representative of the federal government. Pictures portraying alcohol party are actually two-year old, which were taken at a function attended by over 200 people and hosted by a cellular company. Moreover, snaps of Governor’s daughter were taken at a close relative’s wedding.
These are private family pictures of the Governor and his family,” he said assuring the House that unethical functions were not held at the Governor’s House.