LAHORE, Dec 30: It was another chaotic day in the Punjab Assembly on Friday as the opposition agitated and staged a walkout to protest some objectionable remarks of the law minister against the daughter of a PML-Q leader and used the same remarks for Rana Sanaullah in the process.
On a point of order, opposition leader Raja Riaz said that a woman was sitting on the stairs of the assembly building – waiting to meet the speaker to seek justice against police highhandedness.
He threatened an en bloc walkout by the opposition if the woman – Ayesha Ahad Malik –was not heard.
Hearing the name of alleged wife of chief minister’s MNA son Hamza Shahbaz, Rana Sana sprang to his feet; yelling that she did not come but had been brought in by certain people “purposely”.
Cautioning against repeating the act, he blamed the opposition for doing politics in the name of a “woman with a criminal background”. As if it was no enough, he launched a personal attack on Ms Malik.
The provoked opposition, especially women members, stood up shouting at the law minister demanding of the government to remove him from the office.
Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal, however, ignored the calls; urging the members to maintain decorum in the house.
Protesting the treasury’s attitude, Raja Riaz led a walkout by the opposition members except for PPP’s Ashraf Sohna who remained seated.
Sohna later told Dawn that he did not leave the house only to enjoy assertions of PML-N’s Afzal Munda, who preferred to continue speaking when Dr Samia Amjad of the PML-Q entered the house only to point out a lack of quorum.
As the treasury failed to maintain the quorum, the speaker adjourned the proceedings till Monday afternoon.
Later, all the women opposition members joined Ms Malik in front of the assembly chamber in a bid to block the exit of the speaker, law minister and CM’s senior adviser Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa. They raised slogans against the law minister, who did not come out of the assembly until the protesters, including Ms Malik, left the place.
The speaker and the CM’s adviser both refused to listen to the demonstrators and were escorted out by the security personnel.
Talking to the media ready to gather any ‘juicy’ story, the female legislators condemned the law minister for his “disrespectful” remarks and demanded of the chief minister to sack him.
Ms Malik said she only wanted justice against police torture. She said she was trying to meet the speaker to prove her innocence.
Terming the law minister just a “crony” of her “father-in-law”, she urged him to avoid using abusive language against her. She vowed to follow Hamza Shahbaz wherever he went.
Denying reports about her divorce, she claimed that she was still a wife of Hamza and could produce a marriage certificate as evidence.
MINORITIES: PPP’s minority MPA Pervez Rafiq told the house on Friday that minorities wanted to see their seats doubled in all the elected houses.
Mr Rafiq, who had been told in the business advisory committee meeting that being its constitutional nature his resolution could not be taken up in the provincial legislature, requested the chair to set aside rules for taking up his resolution for increasing minority seats in the house.
He argued that the matter should not be seen in the light of constitution alone as being a representative of the minorities he had the right to put the issue before the house.Lauding the services of slain leader of minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, he thanked President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani for giving minorities representation on the Senate as earlier the upper house was no-go area for them.
The chair, however, did not oblige him.
