LAHORE, June 17: Punjab Assembly Speaker Afzal Sahi on Friday barred another seven MPAs from ‘sitting’ in the house for two weeks, triggering a noisy protest and walkout by the opposition.

The speaker’s ruling came immediately after the beginning of the session when PPP’s Rana Aftab stood on a point of order to seek clarification from the chair on the previous day’s orders, barring Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) parliamentary leader Rana Sanaullah and his colleague Rana Mashhud from attending assembly sessions for two weeks.

Mr Aftab wanted to know whether the speaker had stopped the two MPAs from attending the session or from entering the assembly premises, as had been reported in a section of the press.

The speaker, who evaded a direct reply and reserved his ruling on the subject, insisted that the two MPAs could not enter the assembly building.

This triggered a loud protest by the opposition which claimed that the speaker was not empowered to stop any MPA from entering the building.

“He can stop a member from attending a session,” Aftab said, “but cannot declare the entire building out of bounds for a member of the assembly.”

The speaker, however, insisted that he was perfectly within his rights to do so.

The opposition members started shouting and accused the speaker of indulging in a partisan, illegal and unconstitutional behaviour.

As Mushtaq Kiani of the treasury benches tried to defend Mr Sahi, the opposition’s protest degenerated into a name-calling exercise. The house reverberated with shouts of “go, speaker go” as chaos as confusion prevailed.

Amid the protest, the speaker announced the barring of another seven opposition MPAs — Sheikh Ijaz, Sami Ullah Khan, Ishtiaq Mirza, Farzana Raja, Uzma Bukhari, Pervaiz Rafiq and Ashraf Sohna — and told them to leave the house and stay away for two weeks.

Enraged members of the opposition staged a walkout in protest against the ruling and gathered outside the assembly, shouting slogans against the government and the speaker.

“We wanted to peacefully settle the row,” Mr Aftab told journalists.

“That is why we first requested Mr Sanaullah to withdraw remarks he made on Wednesday and did not bring him to the house today to avoid any confrontation. Unfortunately, the speaker and the government have chosen a confrontational path.”

The opposition, he said, would protest against the speaker’s behaviour on every platform, including the legal one.

“The suspended members will come to the house on Saturday, come what may,” he announced and threatened, “If the suspended members are arrested, all of us (opposition MPAs) will also court arrest.”