LAHORE, Nov 29: It was again PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah Khan who played with the nerves of the PML-Q MPAs during the Punjab Assembly session on Friday, making some of them to react even aggressively.

During the somewhat brief session there was at least no-one in the visitors’ gallery to yell at the Speaker to seek permission to speak or at Mr Rana as all sat in the House because of the election of the leader of the house.

But still, many PML-Q MPAs complained of lack of seats. A member thanked the speaker for allowing him to stand at his back which he said was better than sitting unnoticed in the visitors’ gallery. Strangely enough, not many PML-Q people reacted to the remarks by other opposition leaders like Qasim Zia and Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan. But every time Rana Sanaullah spoke he created a pandemonium.

The PML MPAs, including women, were the first to reach the assembly whose proceedings started at 10:30am, half-an-hour behind the schedule. They were followed by those of the PPP and the MMA. Pervaiz Elahi was welcomed and congratulated after his election with clapping instead of the thumping of the desk.

PPP’s Saghira Islam gave a glimpse of how she struggled during the Zia-era’s MRD by continuing to speak despite denial by the speaker and counter attack by almost all the PML-Q women.

She said the PPP people were being forced to change loyalty through unconstitutional methods, adding those already ‘sold’ were trying to justify their hypocrisy.

A PML-Q member said the PPP people were staging a drama to facilitate return of their leader Benazir Bhutto. Another member of the same party was hooted by his own colleagues when he said he had mistaken the members as educated people who actually were behaving like working in a fish market. Ms Imbasat Khan who voted for Mr Elahi tried to put a brave face and later sat with the MMA women behind her surprised colleagues.

It was the Punjabi chauvinist Rashid Bhatti whose defection surprised many in the PPP circles. Many, including Qasim Zia, continued to pursue him to remain loyal to the party but he did not budge. And as he was moving towards the queue of the voters of Pervaiz Elahi, some PPP men asked him to give his turban (a symbol of honour) to the speaker. Ehsanullah Waqas of the MMA said those in his group were not voting for anyone because one party had accepted Gen Pervez Musharraf as its leader while another had accepted the patronage of US President Bush.