LAHORE, June 24: The treasury benches’ resolution on the basis of which the Punjab Assembly speaker had expelled the deputy opposition leader from the house should be expunged from the official records along with the controversial ruling, opposition leader Qasim Zia and PML-N parliamentary party leader Rana Sanaullah Khan demanded on Friday.

Terming the resolution as well the ruling illegal, they said at a news conference that in case they were not deleted from the records, they would provide the speakers of the future assemblies a justification for action on the basis of proposals given by the ruling party.

Rana Sana had come to the Punjab Assembly secretariat on Friday after the bar on his entry had expired with the prorogation of the budget session on Wednesday.

Qasim and Rana also called upon the speaker to forward the disqualification references they had moved against the legislators who changed their loyalties.

In case the two demands remained unmet, the tension would not come down and the opposition legislators would continue their protest at the next session, they warned.

Referring to the committee the speaker had constituted to discuss modalities to resolve differences between the treasury and the opposition, Qasim said so far nobody had approached him for the purpose. He said while the treasury was free to nominate its members it was his prerogative as opposition leader to give names from his side. As for the names announced by the speaker, Qasim said, opposition had given no proposals to anyone.

Rana alleged that the chief minister was offering baits to opposition legislators to encourage them to change loyalties. A ‘package’ of development fund of Rs 20 million, 100 jobs in government departments plus some jobs in banks was being offered to anyone willing to part company with the party on whose ticket he or she had been elected, he alleged.

The PML-N leader said while the speaker had taken action against him despite the fact that he had withdrawn his remarks which had also been expunged, no action had been taken against anyone on the treasury benches who had used abusive language in the house.

He said the opposition respected the speaker’s powers and their use in situations they were meant for. But, he said, the speaker should not let himself be used by the treasury. The PML-N leader denied that some female legislators had gone to the chief minister crying that the leader from Faisalabad had used any unparliamentary language. No such incident had taken place over the past 30 months, he claimed, adding that if he had ever done so the speaker must have issued him a warning.

Qasim Zia said MMA’s Arshad Baggu had made a sincere effort for a patch-up between the treasury and the opposition, but the bid had been foiled by the government.