LAHORE – The proxy attendance issue remained the hot topic during the Punjab Assembly (PA) session on Friday, as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of the Punjab Assembly (MPA) Sanaullah Mastikhel exchanged hot words with Unification Bloc Member Sheikh Allauddin over the issue.
The heated arguments created a tense situation in the assembly, as PA Speaker Rana Iqbal’s ruling was violated thrice but both the treasury and opposition benches did not notice it. The speaker ordered Mastikhel to leave the House for an hour, which the PML-N MPA refused to obey on which harsh words were exchanged between him and Allauddin. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and other parties supported Mastikhel and said, “If Mastikhel will go out then we will also boycott the proceedings”. Punjab Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran went to Mastikhel’s seat and asked him to honour the speaker’s ruling, but the PML-N MPA remained firm on this stance. He remained present in the House during the one hour he was supposed to go out, openly challenging the speaker’s authority over the House.
PPP MPA Pir Syed Nazim Hussain Shah, a veteran parliamentarian, also violated the speaker’s ruling by twice standing up on his seat and demanding that the attendance register be placed at its earlier position. Iqbal had ruled that no one would talk about the attendance issue now but Nazim threw the speaker’s orders in the air. The session started 20 minutes late at 9:20am with Iqbal in the chair and the question hour session started. The proceedings were going on in a smooth manner when Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Parliamentary Leader Ali Haider Noor Khan Niazi, speaking on a point of order, said that filling of attendance by MPAs in front of all is just a humiliation and nothing else. He said that this exercise is humiliating the members as if they had committed a crime. Supporting Niazi’s views, Allauddin, speaking on a point of order, started talking about fixation of the bio matrix system saying that mistakes of a few MPAs were causing problems to all so this system will help ensure transparent attendance.
After seeing that the Unification Bloc MPA was opposing the idea of placing the attendance register on its earlier position, Mastikhel stood up and leveled serious allegations against him by saying that Allauddin is enjoying perks by working as head of the Aashiyana Housing Scheme, which is being constructed at a water-logging area. Allauddin also lost his patience and requested the speaker to ask Mastikhel to “hold his tongue” otherwise he would also start speaking in the same tone. The PML-N MPA challenged the Unification Bloc MPA to come out of the House so that they could settle their affairs on which Iqbal ordered Mastikhel to leave the House for one hour.
But Nazim and Niazi stopped him from honouring the speaker’s ruling on which slogans were chanted in the House and a tense situation was witnessed. Speaking on a point of order, Niazi said that proxy attendance should be discouraged and “we all condemn it”, but it is unfair to humiliate all MPAs for a crime committed by others. He urged the chair to withdraw his order for placing the attendance register in the house. Unification Block leader Dr Tahir Ali Javed, on a point of order, drew attention of the speaker on ruling of Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood that placing the attendance register in the House was just an “immoral decision”.
Punjab Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said that practice of proxy attendance be discouraged and it should not disgrace others who not only come to the House regularly and but also play an important role in the assembly’s business. He also requested for withdrawal of the decision placing the attendance register in the House.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, on a point of order, informed the House that respect and honour of MPAs is important to the Punjab government but proxy attendance is also a serious issue. He said that the Punjab CM has allowed installation of the bio matrix system. Sanaullah said that it is also unjustified that some MPAs, which are not coming to the House since months, have complete attendance in the attendance register. He said that attendance of even those MPAs who are abroad since long is being marked in the register. After listening to various arguments, the speaker said that he would resolve the issue by constituting a five-member committee in a day or two and there would be no attendance on Monday. It looks like that some MPAs wanted to overlook the proxy attendance issue.
