LAHORE, June 14: Deputy Speaker Shaukat Mazari had to shout down everybody in the house to control the chaos caused by treasury benches desiring the chair not to give floor to PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah on Tuesday. The Rana wanted to comment on the budget for the new fiscal in the presence of Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi who had made his appearance in the house after a couple of days.
The chaos ensued when PPP’s Farzana Raja levelled serious allegations on the PDF raffle scheme, citing a stay order issued by the Sindh High Court against it.
Law Minister Raja Basharat deplored that the woman MPA had tried to undermine economic growth of the province and put at stake prestige of the house as well as Punjab.
Rana Sana said had the economy of the province dear to the ruling party, the chief minister would not have signed a plain paper authorizing the president to take whatever decision he liked on the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, the major source of funding for provinces.
Alleging that the Punjab government had no stance on the NFC, he said the biggest “good news” it had been announcing for the masses was changing of loyalties by opposition MPAs.
Raja Basharat, however, hit back saying in the past a younger brother had been sacrificing interests of Punjab to strengthen rule of his elder brother in the centre, a reference to Sharif brothers government.
As the Rana took the floor to argue the treasury benches started shouting “no, no” and urging the chair to confine the proceedings to budget debate.
The noise was so loud that the chair had to shout out to maintain decorum of the house.
Asr prayer break came to the help of the deputy speaker when Rana Sana, after a speech on budget by a treasury MPA, again stood up to take part in the budget speech and the treasury MPAs re-started shouting “no, no.”
counters: The PIA and the Pakistan Railways have set up their special counters on the Punjab Assembly premises to facilitate MPAs in reservation of seats and ticketing.
However, the counters which have started working will be operative only when the house is in session.