Punjab Assembly witnesses uproar, faces quorum issue

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly on Thursday witnessed uproar and plunged into disorder after the opposition demanded resignations of Senator Ishaq Dar and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal after disqualification of Foreign Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif.

At the outset of the PA session, which started with a delay of nearly two-and-a-half hours, opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, on a point of order, welcomed

the Islamabad High Court verdict declaring Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif disqualified for lifetime.

The opposition members also criticised Interior Minister Ahsen Iqbal and Senator Ishaq Dar for deceiving the nation and courts. They said these politicians were bringing a bad name to Pakistan and called for their immediate resignation on which members from treasury benches also started chanting slogans against Imran Khan.

In the Question Hour session, Ehsan Riaz Fatyana of the opposition and Provincial Minister Sheikh Allauddin also exchanged heated arguments. Fatyana, expressing dissatisfaction over the answer given to the House by the minister concerned, said that already a lot of time had been spent on one question and he would not pose further queries.

Responding to a question by opposition member Arif Abbasi, Chaudhry Sher Ali Khan, the provincial minister for Energy, asked the questioner to come up with proofs of corruption in Quaid-e-Azam solar plant rather than doing politics over the issue.

Meanwhile, the PA session was adjourned after Ehsan Riaz Fatyana pointed out quorum. PTI mass contact campaign Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in connection with its mass contact campaign, has set up dozens of camps in the provincial metropolis. The camps are monitored by senior party leaders, who are convincing people of Lahore to participate in the April 29 public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan, to be addressed by Imran Khan.