LAHORE: The video evidence of what happened in the Punjab Assembly during the election for the slot of chief minister on Saturday may be corrupted as the hard disc containing the data has been removed from the IT department’s computer.

Official sources confide to Dawn that an assistant director of the assembly secretariat’s IT department has informed assembly secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti that some members of the personal staff of Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari visited his office late on Saturday to remove the entire computer system containing data on the house proceedings.

On his resistance and in anticipation of the cumbersome task of carrying away the whole system, they removed just the hard drive, the IT official was quoted as informing the secretary in writing.

Reacting to the ‘data-theft’ report, PML-N spokesperson Azma Bokhari says Mr Elahi and the PTI leadership could not evade accountability for the torture of Mr Mazari and opposition assembly members as they as well as the media covering the proceedings had video clips saved in their cell phones and video cameras.

She says Mr Elahi had earlier removed the record of ‘illegal’ appointments made in the assembly but this too will be recovered soon after taking reigns of Punjab.

Mr Bhatti, who along with four other senior officers of the assembly was banned from entering the assembly building by the deputy speaker on Saturday evening for their alleged involvement and/or failure in controlling the mayhem during the election process, visited his office on Sunday and compiled a report on the Saturday episode for the perusal of the governor.

The report had been sought by Governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema.

Sources in the Governor House say that Mr Bhatti’s report holds the deputy speaker and the opposition members responsible for the commotion before the voting. It says that the deputy speaker unduly delayed the morning session by an hour, entered the house escorted by police personnel instead of the assembly’s own security and authorized the deployment of police and personnel from other law-enforcing agencies in the assembly hall in violation of rules and norms.

It says women MPAs and their male colleagues from the treasury benches protested and went to the speaker’s dais only after the police escorting Mr Mazari slapped some of the women members, making Mr Mazari return to his chamber. It said Speaker Parvez Elahi, who was contesting against the PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz for the slot of the chief minister, was also assaulted.

Meanwhile, the assembly secretariat also saw the issue of orders for the convening of session anew and withdrawal of the same late yesterday night.

Mr Mazari, who prorogued the house for an indefinite period soon after announcing the result of the contest for the chief minister’s office, issued orders for summoning the session afresh on Monday for taking up the no-confidence motion against the speaker.

However, when he was told by the assembly staff that no-confidence against him (the deputy speaker) had been submitted and the same would have to be taken up first before against Speaker Parvez Elahi, Mr Mazari withdrew the orders for convening the session.

In a later development on Sunday, Speaker Elahi ordered a recall of the next sitting of the prorogued session on April 28. The assembly secretariat immediately issued a notification to the effect.

A spokesperson for the provincial assembly has, meanwhile, claimed that the deputy speaker does not enjoy the powers to suspend any officer of grade 20 or above as these powers rest with the speaker.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2022