LAHORE – The opposition parties continued its protest against the speaker’s decision for not to take up Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) adjournment motion on the Panama Leaks out of turn in the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday.
The adjournment motion with a demand to hold investigations and punishments of the Pakistani people involved in the Panama leaks is submitted by the opposition leader and PTI Parliamentary Leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed in the assembly secretariat on last 4th April.
During the Tuesday session of Punjab Assembly, all three major opposition parties including PTI, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) excluding the Jamaat Islami Pakistan (JIP) staged protest and sit-in in the House.
During the adjournment motion session in the House, the opposition leader on a point urged the speaker to take up his already submitted adjournment motion in the House that was refused by him giving reasoning that it would take up after completion of the process under the rules and regulations of the proceedings of the Punjab Assembly.
On this, the opposition started agitation coming out to their benches and staged sit-in surrounding the speaker’s desk for a while. They also chanted slogans against the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Later, on the request of the speaker, they ended the protest and participated in the unofficial business of the House.
Meanwhile, when the opposition legislators were staging their sit-in in front of the speaker’s desk, a treasury member from Okara Mian Munir distributed currency notes of some of Rs 300 among the sitting opponents comparing them to beggars. Anyhow, the protesters did not mind it but immediately stood up ending their sit-in.
Punjab Assembly session on Tuesday started 58 minutes late to its scheduled time at 10 am under the chair of Speaker Rana Iqbal. The House adopted the question hour about revenue and colonies departments and parliamentary secretaries of both department including Chaudhry Zahid Akram and Nazia Raheel answered queries to their colleagues.
Later, the House unanimously passed some of the resolutions moved by the opposition members including Saqlain Khan’s resolution to announce relief package to the farmers, Sadia Sohail’s resolution to hold strict action against unlicensed medical stores and the resolution of opposition leader Mian Mehmood to make a restructure of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
