As all the other provincial legislative assemblies of the country and National Assembly of Pakistan are reverberating with the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Panama papers case, the provincial assembly of the Punjab, too, echoed with the debate over the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) with the opposition parties demanding resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Members of the assembly raised a ruckus, as both the treasury and opposition benches hurled slogans against the leadership of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) respectively, bringing the proceedings of the house to a standstill for some time.
The opposition led by the PTI wanted to move a resolution urging the Prime Minister to step down from his office until the investigation of Joint Investigation Team (JIT), constituted by the SC to probe the PM, was complete. However, speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan did not allow the leader of the opposition Mian Mehmood-ur-Rashid to move the resolution for being out-of-turn.
Speaking on a point of order, leader of the opposition said that the Prime Minister is no longer a sagacious, righteous and non-profligate person, qualities that he must acquire, in order to remain a member of the National Assembly, as per the articles 62 and 63 of the constitution of Pakistan. Due to this reason, he continued, the PM should resign until the probe by the JIT was complete.
The opposition member left their benches and started chanting anti-Nawaz Sharif slogans in front of the rostrum of the speaker. Some of the members of PTI, including Arif Abbasi of Rawalpindi and Khurram Shehzad of Faisalabad, stood on their seats while raising the slogans before tearing the copies of the agenda into pieces.
Similar sloganeering came from the treasury benches as well, and the speaker’s attempt to pacify the crowd went in vain.
‘Go Nawaz Go’ and ‘Ro Imran Ro’ slogans were raised from the opposition and ruling benches, respectively. Some non-parliamentary words were also uttered by the treasury benches as the speaker looked on.
When the speaker asked the PTI lawmaker Shoaib Siddiqui to read out his adjournment motion, he started an anti-government speech instead of reading his motion. Soon after, the opposition carried out a joint walkout from the assembly and did not return until the adjournment of the day’s proceedings.
Earlier in the day, the opposition parties held a detailed meeting in the chamber of the leader of the opposition to craft a joint strategy in the house. Talking to Pakistan Today, the parliamentary leader of Pakistan Peoples Party Qazi Ahmed Saeed said that his party had submitted a resolution in the house demanding the resignation of Prime Minister and all the opposition parties were on the same page on this issue.
The Punjab Assembly comprises of 369 members where PML-N enjoys a simple majority with 311 members.
Law minister Rana Sanaullah, from the ruling party, moved a resolution in favour of the Prime Minister. All the members of the assembly from the ruling party gave their votes in the favour of the resolution by chanting slogans ‘Sher, Sher Sher’ (Lion) – the election symbol of PML-N.
“This dignified house expresses complete confidence in the vibrant and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Pakistan Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. The leadership of the Prime Minister is the only ray of hope for the development and prosperity of the country,” the resolution says.
The session will resume today (Tuesday).