Members of the PPP and media representatives briefly boycotted the National Assembly session on Friday over separate matters.

The PPP, which is a coalition partner of the ruling PML-N in the Centre, has been incensed after Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s remarks amid an ongoing rift between the two parties over flood relief. Meanwhile, journalists have been protesting a raid by Islamabad police at the National Press Club (NPC) yesterday, during which media persons were assaulted.

A while after the NA session began today, PPP’s Naveed Qamar said, “I want to say this on record that in the last session, we had raised some issues. We had also protested and walked out. After that, the government sent a team that engaged in dialogue with us.”

He, however, maintained that nothing changed despite the talks. “There has been no difference on the ground […] We cannot be a part of this House until this matter is resolved.”

“So, we are walking out today,” he announced.

Later, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar began his speech by expressing the hope that differences between the PPP and PML-N would be resolved. He also requested Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar and National Food Security and Research Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain to talk and convince PPP leaders to rejoin the session if they had not left parliament by then.

As Dar continued his speech, some of the PPP members were seen returning to the hall amid applause.

At that, the foreign minister expressed gratitude and said the issues between the two parties would be resolved with the involvement of the leadership on both sides.

The PPP had walked out of the last NA session as well on September 30 over Maryam’s remarks.

The war of words between the two sides, which had begun over flood compensation, expanded to water rights on the Indus River as the Punjab’s chief minister told the PPP leadership to keep its advice to itself. In response, the PPP had lawmakers stayed away from the National Assembly and Senate sittings to protest the diatribe.

On Wednesday, PPP and PML-N bigwigs met in Islamabad to find a way out of the row, with the former asking Maryam to “rethink her tone” while speaking about water rights and Sindh’s ruling party.

During the meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Law Minister Azam Nazir, Senator Rana Sanaullah and PPP’s Navid Qamar and Ijaz Jakhrani at the NA speaker’s office, it was agreed that the matter would be taken up with PML-N President Nawaz Sharif and CM Maryam.

Journalists walk out

Separately, a Dawn.com correspondent at the NA reported that journalists, too, had boycotted today’s session over yesterday’s police raid at the NPC.

Members of the Parliamentary Reporters Association of Pakistan (PRA) walked out of the press gallery, led by PRA President MB Soomro and Secretary Naveed Akbar.

A statement issued by the PRA in this connection said the NPC was “home to journalists” that was attacked by Islamabad police yesterday. “Violence against journalists and such incidents are becoming common,” it said, adding that the PRA considered these occurrences as a “reflection of undemocratic thinking”.

The association also strongly condemned the incident.

While journalists boycotted the session, NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq urged that some treasury bench members hold dialogue with journalists.

Subsequently, Public Affairs Minister Rana Mubashir Iqbal, Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik and Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Bilal Azhar Kayani went to the NA’s press lounge on the speaker’s directives. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudry also reached the press lounge.

Tallal assured the journalists that their demands would be fulfilled, condemned the raid at the NPC and expressed solidarity with journalists.

He said the law minister had been in contact with him over the matter and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, too, had been briefed on it.

On assurances by government representatives regarding the fulfilment of their demands, journalists decided to postpone the boycott.

Additional reporting by Nadir Guramani