LAHORE – Following the two-year long struggle, the unification bloc in the Punjab Assembly has finally been granted an independent status when the speaker allocated the bloc separate seats in the House on Tuesday. A Punjab Assembly source told Pakistan Today that Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal used his powers under the rule 2 of Chapter 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly and allocated separate seats to the PML-Q dissidents who proved their majority in the Punjab Assembly against its parent party.
Dr Tahir Ali Javed has been appointed the parliamentary leader of the Unification Bloc that has a strength of 47 members. The PMLQ had 81 members in the Punjab Assembly three years ago, of which 47 members joined hands under the banner of the Unification Bloc after developing differences with the party leadership when the PML-N Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was disqualified by a court of law, leading to a joint effort of the PPP and the PMLQ to form government in Punjab.
All 47 members of the Unification Bloc had signed a requisition and submitted to the speaker on February 2. Earlier, around 44 members of the bloc met at the Committee Room of the Punjab Assembly and nominated Dr Tahir Ali Javed as the parliamentary leader of the group in the assembly. Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal said the decision on the requisition was taken in accordance with the law.
Reacting to the development, PML-Q parliamentary leader and opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, Chaudhry Zaheerud Din, said the move was unconstitutional and illegal and the PML-Q would protest against the conspiracies being hatched against democratic forces in Punjab. He said the PML-Q would challenge the change in the bloc’s status quo in the Punjab Assembly, and send protest letters to all provincial assemblies, speaker national assembly and the international organisation of speakers.
Zaheer said his party would stage protests in the next session outside the Punjab Assembly against the speaker’s decision. Whereas Pakistan People’s Party’s Senior Minister Raja Riaz called the decision a promotion of “lotacracy in the Punjab Assembly.” He said that the move would damage democratic norms in the provincial assembly.
