LAHORE, Oct 24: Pandemonium broke out in the Punjab Assembly on Friday, and the opposition walked out, following a verbal bout between Imbasat Khan of the Treasury and Uzma Zahid Bukhari of the PPP.

The heated debate was the follow-up of a heated verbal exchange between Sagheera Aslam of the PPP and Ms Khan the other day.

On Friday, Ms Khan again took the flour to grill the opposition for “taking everything personally”. For every petty issue, the opposition comes up with a breach of privilege motion and disturbs the working of the House. Even legal working of police is taken as a breach of privilege, she alleged. “On the other hand, the opposition on Thursday levelled very serious moral allegations against myself, which constitute a serious breach of my privilege as member of the parliament.”

At this stage, Ms Khan levelled allegations on Uzma Zahid Bukhari of the PPP, accusing her father of being thrown out of the high court on corruption charges.

Ms Bukhari stood up for a passionate defence of her father and said that he was fired for his links with the PPP rather than corruption.

As her speech was disallowed by Deputy Speaker Shaukat Mazari, who asked her to allow him to tackle the adjournment motions, Ms Bukhari left the House in protest while still continuing her outburst against Ms Khan.

Her departure did not end the pandemonium as the two sides tried to shout each other down. The opposition staged a 20-minute walkout to protest against the allegations hurled on some of its female members.

The opposition returned to take part in the item next on agenda, the Punjab Baitul Mal Annual Report. The minister concerned was not present in the assembly. Though the law minister, Raja Basharat, offered to start the debate in the absence of the minister, the opposition refused to allow him to do so citing rules of business.

The opposition was of the view that the government was not taking the business of the house seriously enough. The minister, the parliamentary secretary and the minister designate for the session were all absent despite mention of the report on the agenda for the day.

Members of the opposition asked the speaker to at least register some remarks on the non-serious attitude of the government. But, the speaker refused to oblige them and adjourned the session till 11am on Monday morning.