Khosa gets trust vote, orders austerity

LAHORE — Punjab Chief Minister Dost Mohammed Khosa yesterday announced a 70 per cent cut in the budget for his office and pledged to introduce austerity in all departments to spare funds for health, education and projects that could create jobs for the millions who do not have a source of livelihood at present.
He also gave an undertaking to improve the judicial system, law and order situation to control the ascending graph of thefts and dacoities.
The 32-year-old son of former governor Zulfikar Khosa made these commitments while addressing a special session of the Punjab Assembly at which he won a confidence vote from 264 members of the 371-strong house to meet a constitutional obligation.
The opposition PML-Q boycotted the session as a mark of protest against the speaker’s attitude who had disallowed their members to express their views. Senior Minister Raja Riaz made an abortive effort to bring the angry opposition back to the house.
Khosa is a dummy chief minister, being remote-controlled by the Sharif brothers, said opposition leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin. The house echoed with slogans against President Pervez Musharraf, whose support base is shrinking after the February 18 polls.
Khosa said his government would enforce laws to control extravagance at marriages. He said only one dish meals would be allowed at weddings and nobody would be allowed to violate the law.
He paid tributes to the PPP and the PML-N leaders whose sacrifices had played a major role in the restoration of democratic system. He said dictatorship had come to an end and the period of lawlessness was also over. He said now the rule of law would reign supreme.
Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said the prices of wheat flour, gas and electricity were going up despite the rulers’ claim that they would stop the trend. Similarly, he said, the ruling coalition had failed to restore deposed judges despite the fact that they had got a two-thirds majority in parliament.
“The chief minister has no justification to get a confidence vote in the prevailing situation,” said a fuming opposition leader. The house was prorogued after the chief minister’s address.