LAHORE: The Privileges Committee of the Punjab Assembly was irked on Friday by the absence of Atauallah Tarar, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, and special adviser to the prime minister (SAPM), when the panel took up the issue of his alleged obnoxious gesture during assembly proceedings earlier in the year.

The panel decided to act against Mr Tarar as per law if he missed the committee’s next meeting on the issue, for which the date was yet to be fixed.

The committee’s acting chief, Mian Shafi Muhammad, said Mr Tarar was bound to appear before the body to explain his position regarding the “obnoxious gesture”.

He regretted that a person whose grandfather (late Rafiq Tarar) had been president of the country and a champion of supremacy of the Constitution and law, standing in the largest elected house of the country made obnoxious gestures with one hand, while holding a copy of the Constitution in the other.

Assembly Secretary Inayatullah Lak briefed the committee about its powers under the Constitution and Rules of Procedure of the house, saying it could summon and penalise anyone under the Members’ Privilege Act.

Provincial minister Mahmoodur Rashid, MPAs Arshad Chaudhry, Khwaja Daood Sulaimani, Sadia Suhail Rana, Chaudhry Ashraf and Mehr Ijaz Ajlana attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2022