LAHORE: Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz on Sunday said that the session to elect a new leader of the house was adjourned without voting as the treasury benches “saw their defeat” in the face of 200 MPAs supporting the opposition’s candidate.

He was talking to the media hours after the Punjab Assembly session was put off amid ruckus by opposition and government lawmakers. As the opposition continued its protest inside the premises, assembly authorities cut off power and water supplies to force the protestors to end their sit-in and leave the venue.

The provincial assembly convened on Sunday to elect the new leader of the house, with PML-Q’s PTI-backed Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz expected to go head-to-head in the race to become the next chief minister.

Flanked by leaders of Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan and Asad Khokhar groups of the ruling PTI as well as PPP parliamentary leader Hassan Murtaza, Mr Shehbaz told the media that ruling party lawmakers had joined hands with the opposition “on the call of their conscience” after suffering from “cruelties and oppression” by the incumbent government over the last three and a half years.

He alleged that women MPAs from the treasury benches assaulted women lawmakers sitting on the opposition benches at a signal from the authorities when Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari was reading out proponents and seconders of the two candidates in the race of the chief ministership.

The chair witnessed the treasury’s attack for a while and then used this as an excuse to postpone the proceedings for electing a new leader of the house until April 6, he lamented.

“They have made a joke of constitutional responsibility. Had the proceedings been allowed to continue, the house would have elected its leader today,” he said.

Mr Shehbaz said that if treasury candidate Chaudhry Parvez Elahi had enjoyed the majority in the provincial assembly, the proceedings would not have been put off.

Chiding Mr Elahi for cutting off power and water connections of the assembly building, he said the politician from Gujrat deviated from his family’s traditions (of hospitality).

Referring to a press conference by Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar held earlier in the day, the opposition leader said the presser made it clear how federal authorities had been pressurising the governor for taking unconstitutional steps.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2022