April 12, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1429

LAHORE, April 11: Rana Mohammad Iqbal Khan and Rana Mashhud Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-N were elected unopposed as the speaker and deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly on Friday as candidates of the PML-Q forward bloc withdrew their papers.

Outgoing speaker Mohammad Afzal Sahi administered the oath to Rana Iqbal as the house echoed with slogans of ‘Go Musharraf go, Nawaz Sharif zindabad and Zinda hai Bhutto zinda hai’.

Afzal Sahi, who faced a tough time from PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party legislators for his past conduct, was seen off almost unceremoniously as the PML-Q, which had elected him in 2002, was boycotting the proceedings in protest against manhandling of former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and former federal parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi.

Members of the coalition parties termed the boycott a face-saving bid.

Congratulating the new speaker, PPP parliamentary leader Raja Riaz said the present house had neither been elected by any army general nor by a chief secretary. Therefore, unlike its predecessor it would not work as a rubber-stamp assembly.

Some senior legislators, like Saeed Akbar Niwani, Syed Ahmad Mahmood and Najaf Abbas Sial, offered a few compliments to the outgoing speaker, but Tanveer Ashraf Kaira and Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor were in a different mood.

Mr Kaira asked Mr Sahi to inform the members that they would not be de-seated for crossing the floor as the Constitution and the Rules of Business were silent on definition of the parliamentary leader.

Mr Sahi had not forwarded references to the Election Commission for disqualifying several turncoats of the PPP, PML-N and MMA who had joined the PML-Q in the previous assembly.

Rana Iqbal, before taking oath as the new speaker, said that the PML-N had objections to Mr Sahi’s person but he lauded him for allowing the tabling of motions condemning the 1999 military takeover and seeking a United Nations probe into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.