LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Monday suspended its routine business to investigate alleged breach of privilege of Deputy-Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari who, immediately after the proceedings begin, reported that his staff was not allowed to enter Chief Minister House on Sunday, terming it breach of his parliamentary privilege.

As soon as the House met at around 4.15pm to continue debates on some very vital and pertinent issues like Kashmir, price control and law and order, the deputy speaker, speaking on a point of order, presented a “privilege motion,” narrating the Sunday’s incident.

“At around 3pm on Sunday, I went to the Chief Minister House but was stopped at the gate. After some argument, I was allowed to enter but my staff was not. I offered body and vehicle search of the staff, but was refused. The police behaviour was tantamount to breaching my privilege,” he told a receptive House.

The entire House stood behind its deputy. When law minister Raja Basharat offered his apology for the incident, the Opposition quoted previous such incidents and how the House respect was saved by the chair and demanded action against police on the same line.

The chair, occupied by Chaurdhry Pervaiz Elahi, wondered how could someone be allowed to trample the house privilege like this.

The rare consensus was further cemented when the Opposition referred to arrest of an MPA, Maqsood Butt, when late Hanif Ramay was speaker. Mr Ramay, it was told, virtually put the whole House on the hold till Mr Butt was produced in the house within one hour of his arrest. Similarly, another MPA, Jalalud Din Dhakoo, who was stopped on The Mall by a traffic sergeant over the tinted glasses of his car, complained about it to the then chief minister, Ghulam Haider Wayn, who threw the culprit inspector out of the job and inspector general (IG) of police out of province. The “culprits”, in the recent case, need to be dealt on the same lines, the Opposition demanded.

On his part, the law minister apologised on behalf of Punjab police and offered the speaker to decide the matter, pledging his orders would be implemented in letter and spirit. The Chair, on its part, constituted a committee comprising Malik Nadeem Kamran of the Opposition, law minster Mr Basharat and himself (speaker) as head of the committee, to look into the matter.

With the announcement, the Chair also suspended the proceedings and ordered law minister to summon the inspector general of police to the House within an hour. The House was adjourned for an hour at around 5.10pm.

When the speaker returned to the House at 7.05pm, he told the House that the Inspector General (IG) was in Islamabad.

However, he said, the IG would come to the assembly for a meeting at 1.30pm on Tuesday. The House, he said, would meet at 3pm after his meeting with the IG, but would not conduct its routine business till the issue (with police) was settled. He then adjourned the proceedings till 3pm on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2020