It seems that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) will have to face tough opposition in the upcoming days, both, inside and outside the parliament in the aftermath of the Panama leaks verdict. Opposition benches remained on the agitation mode for the second consecutive day in the provincial assembly of Punjab-the stronghold of Sharif brothers. Soon after the completion of question hour on Tuesday, leader of the opposition Mian Mehmood-ur-Rashid spoke on the point of order and said that the Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan could not suppress the voice of the opposition as he did on the previous day by not allowing the opposition to table a resolution against the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The opposition had asked the PM to resign till the completion of investigation by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the apex court. “We were not allowed to table our resolution but you gave a go-ahead to the treasury benches to table their resolution in favour of Nawaz Sharif,” he said and termed the conduct of speaker as biased. Opposition chanted slogans, ‘Muk gya tera show Nawaz Go Nawaz Go Nawaz’ and ‘Gali gali mein shor hai Nawaz Sharif Chor hai’. Some of the members of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf even tore the copies of the day’s agenda into pieces.
Anti-Imran Khan slogans were also raised from the treasury benches as a tit-for-tat. The female lawmakers of PML-N also stood on their seats to raise slogans and they were joined by the male members. Non-parliamentary and discriminatory language was used by these lawmakers. The speaker tried to pacify both the parties but he was unable to silence the ‘fish market’.
Amid the sloganeering from both the sides, PTI pointed out the lack of quorum so the speaker ordered to ring the bells for five minutes to complete it. The chief whip of PML-N Rana Muhammad Arshad requested the ruling party lawmakers to come inside the house and complete the quorum of the house. He was successful in doing so.
As Tuesday was the private members day, a female lawmaker of PML-N Gulnaz Shahzadi was introducing a private bill when the quorum was pointed out for the second time by PTI. The house had to wait for a few more minutes to complete the quorum again. Two private members’ bills were referred to the standing committees and their reports were sought within two months.
A bill ‘The Punjab Child Marriage Restraints (Amendment) Bill’ introduced by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Khurram Jahangir Wattoo. It was rejected by the PML-N because of its simple majority in the house.
Earlier in the day, answers related to the Revenue and Colonies departments were answered during the question hour.
The session will resume today, (Wednesday) morning.
