LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution amid opposition protest to condemn the May 9, 2023 attack on military installations.

The resolution tabled by Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja demanded that the perpetrators and the plotters of the May 9 incidents must be taken to task as they tarnished national repute in the comity of nations by attacking the residence of the founder of the nation and monuments of martyrs.

As the resolution was tabled, the opposition members stood on their seats, tore down copies of the resolution and began chanting slogans in favour of the founder of PTI and against the leadership of the ruling party. Carrying party flags and portraits of the PTI founder, they encircled the dais of the speaker and jostled with the treasury members.

Both sides also engaged themselves in a sloganeering match.

Earlier, treasury members, particularly woman MPAs, vehemently objected to filming of house proceedings by his phone by opposition’s Rana Shehbaz as deputy speaker Zaheer Iqbal Channar, who was chairing the sitting at that time, stopped Mr Shehbaz asking him to put off the ‘photo session’ for another time.

Opposition leader Ahmed Khan Bhachar later told the media outside the assembly that he was disallowed to table a resolution terming the May 9 incidents controversial and demanding a judicial commission to probe them.

Meanwhile, Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan has refused to bar from joining house proceedings by the MPAs elected on reserved seats the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council lays claims on.

Opposition member Rana Aftab sought a ruling from the chair on the status of these ‘controversial’ MPAs, who were disallowed by the Supreme Court to vote on any bill until adjudication of their case.

The speaker said that he had sought opinion from the law department as well as the advocate-general and that he could not expel these MPAs until de-notification by the Election Commission.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2024