Punjab Assembly condemns diplomats’ harassment in India

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Friday condemning the incidents of harassment of Pakistani diplomats in India.

According to the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), the Punjab Assembly met for an hour and forty-nine minutes. The sitting started at 10.37 hours against the scheduled time 09.00 hours.

The speaker presided over the entire sitting while the deputy speaker was not present. The leader of the house did not attend the sitting. The opposition leader attended the sitting for an hour and seventeen minutes.

As many as 32 MPAs (9%) were present at the outset and 38 (10%) were present at the adjournment of the sitting. None of the parliamentary leaders was present during the proceedings. As many as six minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

The house did not take up the legislative business appearing on the agenda. The house unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution condemning the incidents of harassment of Pakistani diplomats in India.

As many as five out of 16 starred questions were answered during the proceedings while three questions were disposed of due to the absence of concerned lawmakers. The lawmakers asked 13 supplementary questions. The proceedings remained suspended for 25 minutes during the question hour due to the concerned government department secretary’s absence.

The lawmakers raised 22 Points of Order consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.

The opposition lawmakers staged a five-minute protest and a two-minute walkout against the Specialized Healthcare parliamentary secretary, terming his behaviour ‘unparliamentarily’.

The house was prorogued sine die.