Hooliganism in Punjab Assembly: Hamza rejects 12-member body formed by speaker

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader, Hamza Shahbaz, has rejected a 12-member special committee constituted by the PA speaker after terming the composition of the committee disproportionately non-representative of the provincial parliament and demanded action against Pervaiz Elahi’s ‘abuse of position’ to sabotage the opposition.

Addressing the media outside the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday, he said the committee has only two opposition members while it has 10 members from the treasury benches. This, he said, was incorrect. Therefore, the opposition rejects this eyewash and would not be part of this cosmetic measure. Hamza demanded that there ought to be action against the speaker for blatant lies and fabrication of evidence to support his propaganda. “The truth was unveiled here in the video I showed, Pervaiz Elahi created fake pictures by getting the assembly furniture wrecked after the opposition members had left the house,” he said.

Talking about NAB, he said even the Supreme Court had questioned the role of the NAB and why were its actions being viewed as partisan and political. “I don’t know what special visual-aid we need to give to NAB to enable it to see the billions looted in Punjab Bank, EOBI, NICL and Ring Road Alignment by Pervaiz Elahi”, said Hamza. He was of the view that even in the face of financial woes, the prime minister of a country should not say things like “we are desperate”.

Hamza said it was first time in the history of the country that the post-budget session did not start with the opposition leader’s rebuttal speech. The PTI and its allies used street tactics and lies to hide the disastrous budget presentation. Answering a question regarding bringing a motion of no-confidence against the speaker, Hamza said the opposition is in no hurry because they wanted the incompetent, inability and unparliamentarily conduct of the PTI and its allies to come before the people of Pakistan, so they would have no problem in making up their mind at the ballot.

Regarding a question about the lewd remarks of Speaker Pervaiz Elahi about PML-N woman MPA and the comments of Information Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan about Hamza, he said he would never stoop to the level of these two.

Earlier, Minister for Information Fayyazul Hassan Chohan had said he would recommend Hamza Shahbaz Sharif to appear before the committee constituted to probe hooliganism of the opposition during the session of the Punjab Assembly on October 16. He must join proceedings of the committee and witness the evidence which clearly proves that the PML-N legislators led by Hamza Shahbaz destroyed the decorum of the House and damaged the state property.

Chohan was talking to newsmen outside the Punjab Assembly. He said the PML-N is a private limited company run by Hamza Shahbaz and his father Shahbaz Sharif who have held their legislators hostage. They compelled their MPAs to stage a sit-in against the government, he added.

Chohan deplored that the PML-N MPAs were not attending the session for the last five days but marking their attendance just to claim allowances. The opposition MPAs were not fulfilling their constitutional responsibility, which let their voters down.