Payment to the Faletti’s Hotel will be made on actual sittings : Secretary Assembly

Lahore : Secretary Punjab Assembly Muhammad Khan Bhatti has said that the Punjab Assembly’s present building was constructed in 1935 in which seats were provided for 150 MPAs, with the passage of time the number of the MPAs kept increasing, presently MPAs total is 371, because of Corona Virus in the country, the government has chalked out SOPs including the meetings and social distancing and also issued special instruction for implementation of these.

He said this while talking to the media in the Punjab Assembly here today (Monday).

He said that keeping in view the social distancing formula it is not possible to provide seats for more than 100 MPAs whereas for the assembly session and particularly during the budget session for debate on budget, demands of grants and other matters performance it is essential to have seats for all MPAs.

He said that Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi issued instructions for minimizing Corona dangers. Secretary said that for this purpose Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi constituted a committee comprising senior officers of the Punjab Assembly which visited Aiwan-e-Iqbal a number of times. He said that the Aiwan-e-Iqbal management gave a quotation of more than Rs 3.8 lakh as daily rent. He said that this Committee also visited the PC Hotel.

Muhammad Khan Bhatti said that initially the PC Hotel gave a quotation of Rs 20 lakhs per day for providing the hall, after further negotiations they gave a quotation of Rs 6,30,000 per day whereas Faletti’s Hotel initially demanded Rs 4,65,000 per day as rent for the hall, after detailed discussions, they offered to provide Crystal and Royal Halls at Rs 2,25,000 daily rent besides the Quaid-i-Azam suite for the Speaker, Justice Cornelius suite for the Chief Minister and two separate offices for the Deputy Speaker and the Law Minister and 3 board rooms at daily rent of Rs 2,25,000, one golden pearl hall for lobbies of the treasury and opposition members as complimentary.

He said that afterwards minutes of all relevant record and minutes of meetings with different firms were presented before the Business Advisory Committee headed by the Speaker, strictly observing PPRA rules the Committee accepted the lowest rate offered by the Faletti’s Hotel and selected its halls as the Assembly House.

Muhammad Khan Bhatti further said that that payment to the Faletti’s Hotel will be made on the basis of actual sittings. Secretary Assembly said that no payment will be made for weekly holidays during the session whereas the halls and other complimentary rooms will remain booked from June 5 to June 29.

Muhammad Khan Bhatti said that there is wrong impression among the print and electronic media that daily Rs 10 to 12 lakhs are being spent on holding of the session outside the assembly, Assembly Secretariat has followed the PPRA Rules and Regulations for holding the session outside the assembly, no work was done above the law and the session is being held at the minimum possible expenses.