LAHORE, Aug 6: On the very first day of his stepping into the shoes of leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin dashed the treasury’s hopes of getting a docile opponent, proving he could ‘rise to the occasion’ if provoked.
The opposition leader’s notification had been lingering on since the house came into being on April 9, forcing the PML-Q MPAs to boycotting the assembly proceedings saying the house was incomplete in the absence of the opposition leader.
By delaying the notification, the government has actually been providing time to the PML-Q’s forward bloc to show its majority to qualify for the slot.
Zaheer was, perhaps, unlikely to touch the issues ‘repulsed’ by the treasury, but senior minister Raja Riaz’s welcoming remarks in which he reminded the opposition of the ‘excesses’ the PML-Q committed when in power, made the former launch a counterattack.
He had to quote Governor Salman Taseer’s hard-hitting remarks against some ‘extra-rules’ activities of the government, strike of flour millers and the persisting price hike to declare the coalition government an ‘incompetent administration.’
Undeterred by interruptions, that included slogans like ‘Musharraf ka Jo Yaar Hey Ghaddar Hey’, from the treasury benches and Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal’s warnings, he said the opposition would play its role in accordance with the rules but would not accept dictation from any side.
The chair repeatedly requested both treasury and opposition MPAs to keep decorum of the house and not to interrupt when leader of the house or of the opposition were taking the floor. But, the members would take his directions lightly, rather laugh, ridiculing his style.
There was so much crosstalk and hooting in the house that at times the chair had to shout: “I say order in the house.” But the calls for decorum would fall on the deaf ears of the MPAs.
OATH-TAKING: Three new MPAs-elect -- PPP’s Zulfiqar Gondal and PML-N’s Sardar Wajid and Rana Iqbal -- took oath of their office immediately after start of the house proceedings.
Unaware of the procedure, the PML-N men stood quiet when the speaker was administering oath and joined Gondal midway on a gesture by Raja Riaz. Even then, Rana Iqbal was not looking at his written oath and was repeating the words being uttered by the speaker.
All the three newcomers were given a chance to say something in the house. Gondal, who won from Mandi Bahauddin, considered a citadel of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, started his speech with ‘Jeay Bhutto’ slogan and took to task the Chaudhrys for their alleged land-grabbing bids in various towns of the province.
The speaker, who had been warning the opposition leader to mind his language, could not help saying “very good” when Wajid said he was there to work for the country and the masses. However, when the PML-N MPA encouraged by the remarks got emotional, the chair directed him to take some rest.
The chair advised another lawmaker, Rana Arshad, to go outside and drink some water when the MPA would not stop ‘misusing’ the point of order.
The house, interestingly, referred a privilege motion to the non-existent Privileges Committee. Rather no house committee has so far been formed for want of notification of the opposition leader, who has to nominate members to each committee from the opposition side.
Being most of the lawmakers new to the house, none of them was following the procedure during the Question Hour which was delayed by an hour as the members consumed extra time in exchanging allegations.
Under the rules, the Question Hour is taken up immediately after the recitation of the Holy Quran.
The movers, instead of calling the number of their relevant question, would begin reading out the text of the written question itself, though Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhud Khan, who had by that time taken the chair, mentioned the right procedure.
The MPAs also lacked the knowledge of supplementary questions and started delivering speeches or raising other issues instead of getting to the point. Some would even offer explanations of the written answers on their own, the job meant to be done by the relevant minister.
