The floor of the Punjab Assembly was filled with pro and anti government slogans on Tuesday when Leader of the Opposition Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed along with members of the opposition held a demonstration in front of the speaker’s chair.
The opposition leader was not allowed to speak on the Panama Leaks which prompted him to stage a protest.
As the opposition lawmakers chanted slogans against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif the House reverberated with chants of “Go Nawaz Go”. The speaker found it extremely difficult to run the official business of the house as the treasury members also came to the rescue of their leadership and started chanting slogans in support of Nawaz Sharif.
HOUSE PROCEEDINGS:
Earlier in the day, the proceedings of the session started after the delay of one hour under the chair of Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal. It was Private Members Day on Tuesday and the lawmakers from both sides were given answers by the parliamentary secretaries of revenue and colonies.
Muhammad Arshad Malik, a lawmaker from the treasury benches said the influential people in his constituency in Sahiwal have been occupying the state land for a long time. He was not satisfied with the answer given by Parliamentary Secretary on Colonies Ch Zahid Akram and demanded to retrieve the state land in his constituency.
Mian Aslam Iqbal, an MPA from Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf asked a supplementary question from Parliamentary Secretary Ch Zahid Akram, who was unable to answer. Aslam Iqbal asked whether the ‘Katchi Abadi’ has been officially demolished to build the LOS road near Samanabad in his constituency. The parliamentary secretary could not answer and was reprimanded by the speaker who asked him to come to the house fully prepared.
BANK SECURITY:
Shiekh Allaudin, an MPA from the ruling party highlighted during ‘Zero Hour’ that law enforcement agencies are harassing the management of private banks on the pretext of security.
“Police officials are demanding the private banks to make security arrangements at their own expense and have forcibly closed some banks because they did not have proper security,” he said and added, the private banks and currency exchange companies are planning to go on strike if the situation remains unchanged. Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the security of private banks is the part of National Action Plan (NAP) to avoid any untoward incidence.
“The stakeholders from the finance sector will be called for a meeting to remove their reservations about the issue,” he said. Rana Sana further added that there would be a close liaison between the parliamentary secretaries and their concerned departments in future to respond to the questions of the lawmakers more efficiently.
