LAHORE, March 31: The opposition in the Punjab Assembly on Thursday staged a mock session outside the assembly building while the treasury adopted two privilege motions against “rowdy” opposition MPAs.

The PPP-led opposition which had boycotted the house proceedings on Wednesday was not asked by the PML-N-led treasury to return to the house, a violation of parliamentary traditions. In protest, PPP and PML-Q MPAs held mock proceedings at the stairs of the assembly building where former finance minister Tanveer Ashraf Kaira acted as speaker and Hasan Murtaza the law minister.

Nosher Langrial, Samina Khawar, Faiza Malik, Col Naveed (retired), Shaukat Basra and Pervaiz Rafiq on points of order demanded production of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in the house, but the “chair” showed his helplessness in this regard.

“The chief minister has vanished somewhere and no one knows about his whereabouts. I’ll issue a Rs500,000 ad in papers to find him,” Ms Malik said on a point of order.

Naveed said all segments of society, including doctors, students and government officers, had taken to the streets as the provincial government seemed to be non-existent.

Langrial said Punjab was taking Rs89 billion loans as the provincial kitty was being consumed by “political orphans”. Seemal Kamran said the government was promoting lotacracy or horse trading to complete its constitutional term. With her comments, the Kaira speaker prorogued the session.

Inside the assembly, the treasury set a unique record as in the last sitting of the parliamentary year it adopted two privilege motions against their colleagues on the opposition benches.

The motions were moved by Sheikh Alauddin and Ghazala Rana against Samina Khawar Hayat of the PML-Q and Azma Zahid Bokhari of the PPP.

The house under the chair of Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhud was taking up question regarding the Agriculture Department when PPP’s Shaukat Basra came and alleged that in violation of the parliamentary traditions the opposition, which had been boycotting the proceedings since Wednesday, was not being persuaded to rejoin the session. He claimed that the committee formed by Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal did not meet any opposition member.

Rana Mashhud took a serious notice of the allegation and asked committee members Chaudhry Ghafoor, Ali Ahmad Olakh, Ghazala Saad Rafique and Asad Ashraf for explanation. These members said they had not only held meetings with the opposition MPAs but also assured them of full cooperation.

Basra said the opposition had not been approached on Thursday. The chair asked the committee members to revisit the opposition. In the ensuing development, neither the opposition returned nor the committee members updated the house about their negotiations with the protesting members as the chair prorogued the house.

Earlier, the house adopted various resolutions which included the one moved by Chaudhry Ghafoor declaring 2011 as year of Pakistan-China Friendship.

Mohsin Leghari of the PML-Q, who along with Humaira Awais Shahid did not join the boycotting opposition, also moved a resolution demanding that the federal government withdraw a 17 per cent tax imposed through an ordinance on farm inputs and machinery like tractors, pesticides, fertilizers and seed.

Then, the house took up privilege motions against its own members.

Unification Bloc’s Sheikh Alauddin and PML-N’s Ghazala Rana in the motions blamed the opposition’s Samina Khawar for using abusive language and hurling make-up items and some “objectionable” items at the Sheikh.

Ghazala Rana moved another privilege motion against PPP’s Azma Bokhari, alleging the latter had used “abusive” language in the house which breached the mover’s privilege.

The law minister supported the motions although the chair as well as treasury members like Ali Haider Noor Niazi and Dr Ashraf Chohan spoke against the measure. However, the motions were referred to the Privileges Committee.

Rana Sanaullah argued if judges could be questioned for contempt of courts, what was wrong in moving privilege motions against MPAs.

Four bills were also passed in the absence of the opposition. The rules of procedure were suspended to pass three of the four bills, including Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2011, Punjab Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011, and Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2011, while Qarshi University Muridke Bill, 2010, was also passed with a majority of vote.

The law minister said the opposition instead of walking out should have ensured its participation in the house business to uphold sanctity and traditions of the house.