LAHORE, Jan 29: The People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-N legislators staged a brief walkout from the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday against what they called partisan attitude of Speaker Afzal Sahi and rigging of the by-elections.
MPAs belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, however, did not join them.
The walkout call was given by PML-N parliamentary leader Rana Sanaullah Khan when Mr Arshad Khan Lodhi, Minister for Agriculture, was opposing a privilege motion moved by 10 opposition members against the alleged involvement of a senior police official in bogus voting on Jan 26.
The election on PP-147 (Lahore) had been won by PML-Q candidate.
Mr Lodhi said the opposition was alleging vote rigging only because its candidate had lost. According to him, no formal complaint had been lodged anywhere against the alleged malpractice.
The result of the by-election, he claimed, had established that like elsewhere in the country, the PML-Q had very strong roots in the Punjab capital as well.
A minister first in the Nawaz Sharif cabinet and then in the Shahbaz Sharif cabinet, Mr Lodhi alleged that money had been used in the PP-147 by-elections — but it had been sent from Saudi Arabia, where the Sharifs have been living for the past couple of years.
“Those who received the money are making allegations,” retaliated PML-N’s Rana Mashhood, making a direct attack on the minister.
The house “derailed” immediately. The speaker kept silent and members from both sides started speaking simultaneously, nobody knowing who was addressing whom and saying what.
However, after some time, Speaker Sahi complained that the rules were not being observed.
Rana Sanaullah alleged that the speaker was partisan in his attitude. He said Mr Sahi had adjourned opposition’s requisitioned session on account of lack of quorum, only in 15 minutes. But, he complained, he had adopted a different yardstick for the Wednesday session when the ruling party had failed to bring the members in required strength. As opposition members staged walkout, the speaker ruled the motion out of order.
However, as the members returned, Mr Sahi said it was a baseless allegation that he was favouring the ruling party.
The opposition tried to settle scores with the treasury benches on Wednesday by pointing out immediately after recitation from the Holy Quran at 10.10am that the house was not in quorum.
The speaker adjourned the session for 25 minutes. Qasim Zia and Rana Aftab offered the government cooperation to bring the opposition to the house, on request. Then, on their own, they asked their members to enter the house. As the government failed to thank them for the gesture, they again asked their colleagues to go back to the lobbies.
The new members took oath after which the Question Hour started at about 11.10am.
The speaker kept pending dozens of privilege motions on various subjects, saying time had already been fixed for discussion on subjects mentioned therein.
