Opposition MPAs denied entry into assembly again: •Police torture continues: •speaker unaware of arrest orders
By Intikhab Hanif and Asif Shahzad
LAHORE, May 28: The trouble at the Punjab Assembly continued for the second consecutive day on Wednesday as the police bundled away 36 opposition legislators and 25 political workers when they tried to enter the assembly building.
The police manhandled some of the MPAs and tore up clothes of one of them. Journalists covering the event were also thrashed and abused by the police.
The detained MPAs, including Qasim Zia, Rana Sanaullah Khan and 10 women, were released later in the afternoon on the directions of the government.
“We have taken around 24 people into custody. A list of them is being prepared ... I don’t know how many (of them) are MPAs and how many are activists of their parties,” Lahore Operations and Prevention SSP Aftab Cheema said.
The Speaker had issued the order under Rule 210 of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab, 1997, “for smooth conduct and transaction of business during the remaining days of the session.”
The police swooped down on the opposition MPAs minutes after the Speaker Afzal Sahi told reporters in his chambers that he had not directed anyone to prevent the members from entering the assembly. He expressed his ignorance about the presence of police outside the assembly and said he would talk to the law minister on the issue. Mr Sahi said no-one could stop the MPAs from entering the assembly and anybody doing that was violating the law.
Law Minister Basharat Raja too admitted that the police could not stop the MPAs from entering the assembly and “we are not going to take any unparliamentary step.”
But on Tuesday, Speaker Sahi had for the first time in the parliamentary history of the Punjab barred an entire bloc of 27 MPAs belonging to the PPP and the PML-N from attending the session on Monday for obstructing the smooth proceedings of the assembly. The relevant clause had previously been invoked only in individual cases.
A heavy police contingent and plainclothesmen had cordoned off the assembly building since early in the morning on Wednesday. They allowed entry to MPAs, officials and journalists after strict checking and even frisking.
Around 40 opposition MPAs, led by Qasim Zia, had gathered at a nearby hotel. They came out of the hotel after the session was started but were intercepted by police. “There is Section 144 and you cannot hold a march. You are not allowed to make an illegal assembly on the road,” the SSP told the MPAs, ordering the arrest of PPP’s Raja Riaz after accusing him of blocking traffic. Raja Riaz was slapped and another MPA Rana Aftab was also hurled into a truck along with him.
Many other MPAs including women and activists were also bundled into the truck.
Qasim Zia, Rana Sanaullah Khan, PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafiq and others then started moving towards the assembly in groups of two. Once they reached the first barricade in front of the assembly, the accompanying police started picking them up.
Qasim Zia and three other MPAs were first to be thrown into a police van. The SSP, when asked about the justification of the arrests by reporters, directed his force to also arrest them. Following the green signal, the police started abusing and beating up reporters, a number of them received minor injuries.
Mr Qasim Zia told a press conference after his release: “We are public representatives and have all the right to speak on the assembly forum. Why is the government not willing to allow us entry?.”
The Punjab Elite Force was also called in to join the operation. The arrested people were taken to the Qila Gujjar Singh police headquarters and Model Town police stations. The arrested women were detained at the Race Course women’s police station.
Scores of workers from the PPP and the PML-N kept on arriving on The Mall in groups of eight to 10 after the MPAs were taken into custody. They chanted anti-government slogans. The police kept on bundling them in police vans. However, some of them were set free some distance away while the others were driven to police lock-ups. Saying that the police had also arrested several people, including MPAs, who had not been barred from entering the assembly building, the opposition leader alleged that Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi was doing all that to please some quarters. “He must quit as he has proved unable to run the affairs of the province.”
Mr Zia said neither he nor any other opposition member had any plan to retreat and the MPAs would again approach the assembly at 9am on Thursday.
No case has been registered against the opposition activists, who were in police custody till the filing of this report.
LAHORE, May 28: The trouble at the Punjab Assembly continued for the second consecutive day on Wednesday as the police bundled away 36 opposition legislators and 25 political workers when they tried to enter the assembly building.
