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Thursday March 28, 2024

Rumpus in Punjab Assembly as Speaker, PTI MPA cross swords

By Faizan Bangash
September 01, 2016

LAHORE

The Punjab Assembly plunged into a complete disorder on Wednesday after an exchange of heated words between an opposition MPA and the PA speaker which eventually led to the adjournment session for a brief period. 

The opposition boycotted the assembly proceedings and accused the Speaker, Rana Muhammad Iqbal, of being partial and biased against them and causing disrespect to the House due to his prejudiced attitude. 

“No one has disrespected the assembly more than you have done, you are the custodian of this House, you are not supposed to speak on the behalf of any minister, it is his, not your duty to respond to the queries of MPAs,” said angry Aslam Iqbal while shouting at the chair as well as the Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Tanvir Aslam Malik, after he received an unsatisfactory answer to his question about clean drinking water in his constituency PP-148.

Mian Aslam Iqbal, a senior PTI MPA, from Lahore expressed dissatisfaction to the answer given by the minister regarding provision of clean drinking water in his constituency. 

Aslam Iqbal, a former provincial minister in the era of Ch Pervaiz Elahi, while responding to the answer of Tanvir Aslam stated that there was no drinking water in the area and said he only wanted the minister to be relevant rather than providing the detail about the number of tube wells installed in the area. Aslam Iqbal on the occasion requested the minister to visit the areas of his constituency to get an exact idea of the prevailing situation. He said if the minister found that there existed no such complaint, he would laud the Punjab government.

What led to the entire mayhem were the remarks of Tanvir Aslam when he responded that if he started making such commitment, he would have to be relieved from the PA for all the 365 days of the year.

This answer infuriated Mian Aslam Iqbal who while shouting in the House said the minister was showering favours on anyone of us while visiting our areas, adding it was his duty, he was drawing salary from the same department, using its vehicles, consuming its fuel.

At the time when Mian Aslam Iqbal was expressing his outburst over the reply, Speaker Rana Iqbal interrupted him and asked him not to talk in such manner.

Mian Aslam Iqbal, who during the same question hour earlier had requested the speaker not to answer questions on the behalf of the ministers, started coming hard on him. 

He accused the chair of causing disrespect to the House and showing partial attitude towards the Opposition members. These remarks provoked the treasury benches who also stood up and started shouting at the opponents. 

When Aslam Iqbal continued his tirade against the chair, the speaker also lost his cool and asked him to ‘be silent’ and ‘behave.’

“You have used filthy language, you must take your words back,” said the speaker while also directing to expunge the remarks of Aslam Iqbal from the proceedings.

The entire House witnessed complete disorder and the entire Opposition stood up in protest against the attitude of the chair.  Opposition leader Mian Mehmood-ul-Rasheed while addressing the chair said a general feeling developing among the members of his side was regarding his partial attitude. He urged the speaker to be neutral rather than easing out the Opposition. 

He said when the remarks like ‘shut up’ and ‘I will teach you lesson’ will be used by the chair, it would hurt the sentiments of legislators as well as the sanctity of the House.

He said recently Ehsan Riaz Fatyana, an opposition MPA, had also complaint about the chair’s partial attitude and withdrew his questions in protest. Similarly, he said just a day ago, the way Rana Mashhood responded to the queries of PPP MPA Faiza Malik was totally absurd. He said if the ministers should be well prepared while responding to the questions, no matter who was the questioner, whether he belonged to treasury or opposition. The opposition staged the boycott after which the speaker announced adjournment of the session for ten minutes.

Later, negotiations were held between the both sides after which the opposition ended its boycott and returned to the PA.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah while speaking on the floor of the PA stated that the role of speaker, under the rules couldn’t be debated in the House.

Speaker Rana Iqbal on the occasion stated that he had always treated every member of the assembly equally and he was regretful that allegations of partiality were levelled against him. He invited the opposition to meet him at his chamber on Thursday (today) to convey its complaints and take up all the issues it felt necessary.