LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly session on Thursday was hardly an eighty-minute affair: one hour for the mandatory Question Hour and 20 minutes for the rest of proceedings, which, towards end, had some tumult as Mian Mahmoodur Rashid stood up to demand resignation of the prime minister.

The session started at 11.15am, some 75 minutes late than the stipulated time, and had interesting moments.

Haroon Ahmad Bokhari, Minister for Housing, locked horns with his Treasury colleague Nighat Sheikh and threatened to walk out. On a question regarding traffic congestion on Allama Iqbal Road, the minister blamed construction work of Orange Line for the traffic mess. Ms Sheikh, however, was not satisfied with the answer and claimed that the traffic mess issue predates the construction and the answer is a lie.

The minister said it’s a personal attack and refused to answer the question. He even threatened a walkout. Ms Sheikh was, however, undeterred: “I am just asking for answer to my question, not commenting on his character.” The issue did not get out of hand due to deft handling by the Chair otherwise it could have been bad news for the treasury.

On another question, the minister told the house that the government had stopped Ashiana Housing Scheme in Sargodha owing to some problems in the scheme.

As soon as the question hour ended, the opposition leader, Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, got up on a point of order and reiterated his stance on the Panama Papers’ decision and subsequent demand for the prime minister’s resignation which led to sloganeering on both sides. For the next ten minutes, nothing was audible in the House.

The Chair only helped the House run through rest of the brief agenda, which included some call-attention notices and laying of annual report of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (2014-15) and adjourn the House till Friday morning.

However, before adjourning the House, the chair expunged both the remarks and demand of the leader of the Opposition, saying such demands cannot be repeated on a point of order.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2017