Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar chaired the 26th meeting of Punjab Cabinet at his office on Tuesday.
The cabinet unanimously rejected the application submitted by Nawaz Sharif for granting extension in a suspended sentence in the light of all aspects, ground realities and medical reports.
The cabinet was briefed that required medical reports of Nawaz Sharif were not provided despite repeated reminders of the medical board and the special committee, comprising of provincial ministers Raja Basharat and Dr Yasmeen Rashid.
This committee was constituted on the direction of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on February 11. This committee held its meetings on 19, 20 and 21 February and PML-N leader Attaullah Tarrar personally attended the meeting on February 21 while Dr Adnan participated through Skype.
The representatives of Nawaz Sharif, instead of submitting new verified medical reports, stressed that old medical reports should be treated as final. The report of the special committee was presented before Punjab cabinet meeting which unanimously decided to reject Nawaz Sharif’s application for granting extension in a suspended sentence.
The cabinet meeting also decided to amend Sections 2(S), 21 and 38 of Punjab Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation & Management) Amendment Act, 2007 to increase the amount of fines and sentences for illegal hunting in the province.
It was also decided that fines and sentences will be further enhanced for poaching before hunting season to be started from November 01, 2020. The meeting decided to grant permission for the hunting of 62 surplus blackbucks, 21 Chinkara deer and 27 blue bull (Nilgai) in Cholistan desert.
The Punjab Occupational Safety & Health Amendment Health, 2019 was approved while amendment in Punjab Fisheries Rules, 1965 was deferred. The chief minister said that complaints of contaminated water have arisen due to fish farming in dams that also provide potable water.
Therefore, this matter should be reviewed in detail by health, irrigation, public health engineering departments and other stakeholders and final recommendations should be presented in the next meeting. The meeting also decided to effectively implement necessary precautionary measures in the wake of the situation arising due to the presence of coronavirus in neighbouring countries.
The chief minister directed the line departments to remain vigilant and the meeting was told that additional staff of the Health Department will be posted at airports. The chief minister said that there should be no shortage of eatables being imported from neighbouring countries especially China and Iran. He directed Industries Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal to hold the meeting and adopt advance measures after a detailed review.
The chief minister maintained that Punjab government adopted unprecedented measures with the consultation to serve the people and the wrong culture of the one-man show has been done away with. The decisions made with consultations yield positive results and the government will go to every extent to provide relief to the people.
