Opp members train guns on Shehbaz over Multan Metro

• ‘Multan Metro to be Shehbaz’s Panama Papers,’ opposition leader says

• Opposition ruckus prompts speaker to adjourn PA session

LAHORE: After the ouster of Nawaz Sharif from the office of prime minister following the Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has started targeting Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif who is most likely to become the president of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and will be the candidate for the coveted slot of PM from his party in the general elections of 2018.

As per the details, PTI, who has just 30 seats in the house of 371 in the Punjab Assembly, on Monday forced the speaker to adjourn the session within minutes through a powerful protest. The speaker being left with no other options adjourned the session till Tuesday after three MPAs of the PTI including leader of the opposition Mian Mehmoodur Rashid stood on their seats seeking a point of order soon after the session started.

Mian Aslam Iqbal and Arif Abbasi of PTI then took their seats to let the opposition leader speak on the point of order.

“The chief executive officer (CEO) of Capital Engineering Faisal Subhan has confessed to corruption of billions in front of the Chinese officials in the Multan Metro Bus project while also revealing that he has done a transaction of 2 billion rupees in the bank account of a fake company and allegedly Shehbaz Sharif is the beneficiary of this amount,” the opposition leader said while urging the younger Sharif who is also leader of the house in the Punjab Assembly to come to the house and respond the allegations leveled against him.

He added that the Multan Metro Bus project “would prove to be Panama Papers for Shehbaz Sharif” as Shehbaz would also be “disqualified like his elder brother if the scam of the Multan Metro is probed thoroughly”.

He further demanded to bring the contracts and documentation of all the projects of the metro bus that were launched in different cities of Punjab as he said the “corruption of billions was the hallmark of these projects”. He was of the view that Subhan was underground for the past three months since after recording his statement to the Chinese officials and only Shehbaz knew his whereabouts.

A severe pandemonium could be seen in the house after some female lawmakers from the treasury benches started raising slogans against Imran Khan, that prompted PTI’s lawmakers to start gathering in front of the speaker’s dais. Sloganeering from both the treasury and opposition benches continued for over ten minutes while some PTI parliamentarians including Dr Murad Ras started tearing the copies of the agenda item while creating a mess in the house.

The deputy speaker while addressing the opposition leader said that a debate on the metro bus was held in the house several times and he himself was an eyewitness to such debates. The opposition MPAs were adamant in their protest and Gorchani said on the occasion that he could not run the house in this manner.

No business could be taken up on Monday due to the protest, and the opposition leader blamed the speaker for the episode by saying that he “didn’t allow the members of the opposition to speak”.

PUNJAB ELECTION COMMISSIONER VISITS PA TO REVIEW ARRANGEMENTS FOR SENATE POLLS:

Provincial Election Commissioner of Punjab Sharifullah on Monday visited the Punjab Assembly that would become the polling station for the Senate polls scheduled on March 3.

He was briefed by the Senior Secretary of Punjab Assembly Rai Mumtaz Hussain Babar regarding the arrangements being made for the Senate polls.

As many as 12 Senators would be elected by the members of Punjab Assembly while by-election on a seat vacated following the disqualification of former Senator Nihal Hashmi would be held on March 1.