LAHORE: Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi says the provincial house has taken the lead among all other elected houses in the country by enacting 16 laws since its inception eight months ago.

Talking to a delegation of Pildat here on Wednesday, he said the Punjab Assembly had so f ar passed 16 acts and thus its legislative work was more than any other provincial house as well asthe parliament.

The delegation led by Ahmed Bilal Mehboob included young political workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the PPP, the JUI-F and the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M).

The speaker, who is also a former chief minister of Punjab, recalled the pro-people steps taken during his tenure (200207), including Emergency Rescue Service 1122, f ree education up to matriculation, free books and uniforms, as well as free medi-cines at state-run hospital emergencies.

He said he had always given priority to resolving problems of south Punjab and that`s why the Seraiki belt people never sought a separate province during his tenure.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly could not fulfil the legal obligation of completing its 40 standing committees by holding elections to their chairpersons slots.

Under the law, the parliamentary panels were to be completedwithin three months after the incepdon of the provincialhouse on Aug 16, 2018.

So far chairpersons of only 14 panels have been elected and the polling for other bodies is yet to be held. This includes the Public Accounts Committee-I, whose chairmanship as per agreement between the treasury and the opposition is to be given to Opposition Leader Hamza Shahbaz.

The PAC-II chairmanship was given to the PTI`s Yawar Abbas a day ago (on Tuesday).