Punjab Assembly: Pandemonium as Rana Sana refuses to say ‘sorry’

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Friday witnessed complete chaos after Law Minister Rana Sanaullah refused to apologise over his indecent remarks about the women supporters of PTI, as Speaker Rana Iqbal seemed to be helpless after both treasury and opposition benches opted to plead their case through shouting.

The pandemonium began as PTI lawmaker Dr Nausheen Hamid, on a point of order, drew attention of the speaker towards offensive remarks and said it was decided in the House two days ago that an explanation and apology would be sought from the law minister.

But Rana Sana said the opposition was making a hue and cry on one single word out of his 20-minute-long media talk, adding that the informal chat was held outside the assembly, not on floor of the House.

The provincial minister said he had already taken back his words and the opposition only wanted to point-scoring on the matter. He said there was no need of using the word “sorry” and he would not yield to the opposition’s pressure, adding he would not even utter the initial letter ‘s’ of the word sorry.

The unnecessary stubbornness being shown by the opposition would take the issue far away, he warned. “Do the PTI’s social media teams not say anything about our mothers and daughters,” he asked. “Why should I apologize for a statement I have already withdrawn,” said Rana Sana.

On this, Leader of the Opposition Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed said a formal apology would not lower the stature of the law minister and promote healthy environment in the House. He said thumping of desks by the treasury benches on the controversial speech of Rana Sana was not a good parliamentary tradition and would only infuse negative tendencies.

However, treasury member Rana Muhammad Arshad launched a counter attack on the PTI leadership and said its leader had no respect for women. He said Aisha Gulalai and Tyrian White were also the daughters of their parents and deserved the respect being demanded by the PTI members.

On this, the treasury members started chanting ‘Tyrian ko papa do’ [Give her father to Tyrian] and ‘pirni chor’. In their response, the opposition members chanted slogans like ‘shame shame’ and ‘stop hooliganism against women’. As rumpus reached its peak with nothing being audible, the speaker helplessly shouted ‘order, order’ but failed to maintain it. Later, Mehmood staged a walkout against attitude of ministers and the treasury benches. However, Chaudhry Sher Ali and Malik Nadeem Kamran managed to convince him to join the session.

On Friday, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed two bills including the one tabled by JI’s Dr Waseem Akhtar titled The Punjab Compulsory Teaching of Holy Quran Bill 2017, which makes it compulsory for all schools to impart teaching of Holy Quran recitation from Class 1 to 10.

The House also passed The Punjab Sound Systems (Regulation) (Amendment) Bill 2018 that allows use of four loudspeakers at mosques but restricting their use only for prayers call (Azaan), Friday sermon in Arabic and Eid prayers. These speakers can also be used for reciting Darood Sharif and announcement for missing children or deaths, but any other use would be prohibited, especially any kind of hate speeches or political address.