LAHORE, March 12: The opposition on Monday boycotted the Punjab Assembly after launching a verbal assault on President Pervez Musharraf for “holding the chief justice hostage”.

The protest was so intense that the speaker, after repeated pleas for calm, had to suspend the proceedings for an hour.

Soon after the beginning of the session, opposition leader Qasim Zia took the floor on a point of order and fired the first verbal shot on the person of president for “destructive attack” on the judiciary. He was hardly in the second minute of his speech when the speaker interrupted and reminded him that his point-of-order was not within the rules of the assembly.

This provoked all opposition members who stood up and demanded a debate on the suspension of the chief justice and baton-charge on a lawyers’ rally on the Mall. On the refusal of the speaker, that came amid desk thumping by the treasury, the opposition started shouting anti-Musharraf slogans. The situation became totally chaotic when the treasury decided to respond in kind.

For next 35 minutes, every one in the assembly was shouting at the top of his or her voice, with the opposition shouting “go Musharraf go” and the treasury singing “yes Musharraf yes.”

The opposition then occupied the empty space between its desks and the speaker’s dice and sat there for next 20 minutes, shouting anti-Pervez Musharraf and pro-independent judiciary slogans.

Treasury occupied the other side of empty space and kept raising pro-Musharraf slogans. It also brought in posters in the house praising the president. A helpless Speaker suspended the proceedings for an hour and left the house. The treasury members followed the speaker out of the house but the opposition kept sitting there.

Later, the opposition came out of the house to continue with its protest outside assembly building, where Qasim Zia and his deputy Rana Sanaullah made speeches.

Zia said a dictator had acted against the judiciary to save himself. “He sent the so-called reference on the letter of a person with questionable reputation. Before this letter, some retired generals and representatives of civil society have sent a letter to the president, advising him to take off his uniform. What happened to those letters?”

Zia said the president also sent a letter to the Punjab chief minister, identifying gambling dens and brothel houses being run by his (CM’s) cronies. “What has been the fate of that letter?”

He said the chief justice had been singled out for personal reasons. “The opposition will never allow the judiciary to become a sacrificial goat to satisfy the whims of a dictator.”

Rana Sana, deputy opposition leader, said that a military dictator had summoned the chief justice of Pakistan to his office, which was an unconstitutional step. “By making the chief justice inactive, the president has destroyed the institution of the judiciary. The entire country knows the credentials of the author of the letter. How could such a big and unconstitutional step be taken at the writing of a person of dubious character?”

Basharat: Terming the lawyers’ strike call for Monday a failure, Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja said over 90 per cent of them attended the courts.

Speaking on the floor of the Punjab Assembly, he claimed he had an official record proving that an overwhelming majority of lawyers attended the courts. He said a constitutional matter was being politicised without any reason.

The minister said the opposition was singling out President Musharraf for wrong reasons. It was because of his political sagacity that all institutions — assemblies — of the country were completing their tenure and serving the masses with an exemplary zeal, he said.

Presiding over an opposition-less house, when it met after one hour of suspension, the speaker ran through the question-hour in only 20 minutes. All but two of 20 questions belonged to the opposition which he read through quickly and disposed them of. The fate of the privilege motions, mostly belonging to the opposition, was also the same; more than 20 of them were dealt within 10 minutes.

The general discussion on the agriculture sector was postponed till next Monday because of the absence of the opposition which had sought discussion on its initiative. Since it was the opposition which wanted to discuss the sector, it would be appropriate to wait for them for discussing the sector, the speaker said.