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LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday condemned “anti-army tirade” saying that Nihal Hashmi, speaking on behalf of his leadership, ignored sacrifices of the Pakistan Army and tried to make its role controversial.
Moved jointly by Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat and Minister for Public Prosecution Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, the resolution reads: “This House is of the opinion that the entire nation is proud of its forces and it is because of their sacrifices that the nation feels safe. This nation assures full support to its armed forces.”
Hashmi’s diatribe is a source of discomfort for the nation and this “house feels that his harangue merits sedition charges against him and an example should be created out of him,” the resolution concludes, which was carried “unanimously” because the Opposition was not there.
Speaker forms committee to probe hooliganism during budget session
The House met by 1pm instead of its stipulated time of 11am and survived for next two hours but not without collapsing to quorum once. Given the short attendance, it could have easily fallen prey to it again had it continued for another few minutes. But sensing the lurking crisis, the chair adjourned it at 3pm for Wednesday morning.
The opposition continued with its boycott and protested on the stairs of the Punjab Assembly building. The opposition had called a meeting at the Model Town residence of the PML-N leadership and decided to continue boycott as long as its six suspended members are not allowed in the House. However, the tough line taken by Speaker Pervaiz Elahi was hardly an opportune sign.
Talking to the media [outside the House], he called the opposition leader’s behaviour “childish, lacking training in basic value”.
He also claimed that the opposition was not serious in returning to the House. When asked that in such circumstances the chair normally constitutes a committee to bring back even boycotting individual member leave alone the entire opposition, he said he was naming a parliamentary committee to look into the events of the day (Oct 12, when hooliganism in House did physical damage) and fix responsibility “In fact, 12 members were involved in [that] violence and only six have been punished so far,” dampening any chances of early return of the opposition.
Malik Ahmad Khan of the opposition regretted those assertions, calling them against the grain of natural justice. “How can one be condemned unheard, which has been done in this case of suspension? The chair did not bother to listen to those he suspended. This is dictatorial, not democratic,” he said and one of his colleagues went further: “It is the PTI government, not of the PML-Q. This hawkish behaviour of the speaker would politically bite the PTI, not PML-Q. So, he is punishing the PML-N leadership to settle his personal score at the cost of the PTI. That is how he is availing the opportunity thrown in his way by the events and getting due support from Raja Basharat, minister for law and parliamentary affairs, and former PML-Q colleague.”
The House did approve a 12-member committee to probe the events of Oct 12 and it included name of Zakia Shah Nawaz, an opposition member. However, the opposition claimed that it was neither consulted on the issue nor informed.
Apart from it, it was a day as usual. The opposition arrived at the premises at around 1pm after the party meeting and six suspended members started protesting at the gates of the assembly building. The rest of the opposition occupied stairs to protest what they called highhandedness of the speaker. One of the opposition members, Tahir Jameel, kept lurking in the House to find opportunity for pointing out quorum. He got at 2.35pm and struck. But the treasury was able to bring enough numbers with the five minutes of bells. He could have got another opportunity 30 minutes down the line as the numbers dwindled again but the chair adjourned the House for Wednesday morning.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018
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