PESHAWAR: A lawmaker of Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan was shoved out of a sitting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by a member of Jamaat-i-Islami in an un-parliamentary fashion on Monday after he tried to stage a sit-in in front of the speaker’s dais.

Showing his frankness with AJIP MPA Babar Saleem, JI MPA Mohammad Ali Khan of JI put his arms around the former and shoved him out of the house. The protesting MPA was pushed quickly into the lobby by Mr Khan, who closed the door behind him. JI and AJIP are coalition partners of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the province.

The MPA’s un-parliamentary move shocked legislators and combined opposition staged walkout from the house.

Opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman while regretting conduct of the JI lawmaker said that it was against the decorum to shove out a member from the house.

AJIP member was protesting ‘denial’ of due uplift funds

Under the assembly’s rules of business, only speaker has the right to direct security staff to expel a member from the house if he or she violates decorum or creating disturbance.

The speaker in such situation use ‘sergeant-at-arms’ directing a designated officer to carry out his order in respect to keep order in the assembly.

AJIP lawmaker from Swabi Babar Saleem while speaking on a point of order complained that the government had committed to his party to allocate seven per cent of the total annual development programme for the year 2014-15 but his constituency didn’t receive due share for development schemes.

He added that on the contrary, his party’s woman MPA had been receiving millions of rupees from the ADP.

The MPA said that some leaders of his party had usurped development funds and people of his constituency were being victimised.

He warned that he would not allow others to execute development schemes in Swabi until he received due share in the ADP.

Speaker Asad Qaisar, who was chairing the sitting, asked the staff of the house to switch off the mike of Saleem Babar when he kept leveling allegations against his party and the government.

The AJIP lawmaker later sat in front of the speaker’s dice in protest and vowed that he would continue agitation unless his grievances were resolved.

MPA Mohammad Ali Khan rushed towards the protesting MPA and began dragging him.

Adviser to the chief minister on prison Malik Mohammad Qasim quickly moved towards the dice and helped the JI lawmaker drag Babar Saleem out of the hall.

The MPA began crying amid walkout by the opposition.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak pacified the MPA in the lobby and brought back him to the sitting after giving him assurances.

The chief minister said that a committee comprising Amjad Afridi, Mohammad Ali and Khaliqur Rehman would address grievances of Babar Saleem.

Senior minister Inayatullah Khan, who is a member of the JI, clarified on a point of order that Babar Saleem was not rebuked and instead, he was taken to the lobby to discuss his problems.

The house later passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Delimitation of Local Council Bill 2015 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Subordinate Judiciary Services Tribunal (Amendment) Bill 2015, and referred the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority Bill 2015 to its select committee.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2015

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