LAHORE: Nineteen members-elect of the Punjab Assembly took oath of their offices at the ongoing 41st session of the house here on Thursday.

Speaker Parvez Elahi administered oath to 15 members of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and independent MPA-elect Pir Rafiuddin Bukhari at the start of the proceedings as per law because three newly-elected MPAs of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had not appeared in the house by that time.

As the PML-N and its allies have been boycotting proceedings of the 41st session since day one terming it ‘illegal’ as it had not been notified by the provincial law secretary under the amended law, many believed that the boycott would continue and the party would prefer delaying oath of its members until Friday (today) just before the re-poll for the chief minister’s office “in continuation of the 40th session”.

However, for fear of legal complications, the N-League ended the boycott and its three MPAs – Malik Asad Khokhar, Fida Hussain and Sibtain Reza – escorted by chief whip Tahir Khalil Sindhu entered the house and they were administered oath by Mr Elahi.

The speaker commented that the ruling party at last accepted [the legality] of our session by joining its proceedings.

Mr Sindhu said that the N-Leaguers were taking oath on his (speaker’s) ‘advice’.

The Election Commission did not notify the win of the fourth PML-N MPA-elect, Raja Saghir Ahmad from PP-7, Rawalpindi. Therefore, he didn’t come to take oath.

The PTI lawmakers who took oath included Zain Qureshi, Hassan Malik, Irfanullah Niazi, Mian Azam, Shabbir Gujjar, Malik Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, Nawaz Bharwana, Ghulam Sarwar, Amer Iqbal Shah, M Moazzam, Khurram Shehzad Virk, Mian Akram Usman, Qaiser Abbas, and Saifuddin Khosa.

Proceedings of the session were later put off for Saturday noon (tomorrow).

Meanwhile, the assembly secretariat has issued code for those attending the Friday’s session.

According to it, the MPAs could not take their cell phones into the assembly hall, while no guests of the lawmakers and assembly staff would be allowed to enter the assembly building.

All galleries, including the speaker’s box, officers’ box, and visitors’ gallery, would remain closed. But the press gallery would be opened to allow the media to cover proceedings for the election of the chief minister.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2022