Rumpus mars Punjab Assembly session

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly proceedings on Friday were marred by alternating rumpus and chaos followed by some order, as members from both sides raised slogans against each other’s leaderships, used un-parliamentary remarks against one another and boycotted the House.

Interestingly, not only the female members of the treasury benches protested like the opposition members do by surrounding the speaker’s dais to protest against the parliamentary leader of PPP Hasan Murtaza’s remarks, but even the law minister Raja Basharat also threatened to boycott the House if apology was not tendered by Hasan Murtaza.

The trouble began when Hasan Murtaza was speaking during the general debate on the price control, after the Question Hour and Adjournment Motions. He expressed sorrow that PTI government badly failed in providingbasic necessities to the masses at affordable prices. He lashed out at the former finance minister Asad Omar, saying that Asad used to accuse the former government of fleecing poor masses by charging exorbitant rates for the petrol coming so cheap that it should have been sold at Rs45 per litre.

He said an unknown person from government side appeared on state TV to tell the masses that country’s economy was going in the right direction. When Hasan Murtaza said that PTI leadership and workers kept Islamabad hostage for 126 days and kept staging ‘Mujras and Bhangras’ to demand ouster of sitting elected government, but then they had the impudence to seek votes by accusing the previous government of not performing and having corrupt practices.

Hasan’s remarks of ‘Mujras and Bhangras” infuriated the treasury members, especially the female members who began shouting against him, asking his apology and taking back those remarks. But Hasan refused saying that it was not the first time someone made such remarks in the House. The female members came out of their seats and encircled the speaker’s dais, tearing away the agenda copies and raising slogans against the opposition leadership. Law Minister Raja Basharat also joined the protest by saying that using the remarks of ‘Mujras and Bhangras’ was shameful from a senior and experienced politician and parliamentarian like Hasan Murtaza. The minister threatened that government would boycott the proceedings if Hasan did not apologise.

Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Khan Mazari asked Hasan to apologise, which Hasan did, and later the proceedings began as normal. However, after few minutes a female member from PTI, Uzma Kardar, made a remark against Hasan loudly, which again began a chaos in the House. Opposition members chanted slogans and demanded the chair to make the woman member concerned apologise to him. When the trouble continued and the female member did not apologise, Hasan Murtaza walked out of the House in protest. Chaos returned to the House once again when former information minister Fayyaz Chohan, known for his uncontrolled outbursts against the opposition leadership, made sharp remarks against PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif. Fayyaz Chohan was given time by the chair to speak on the price control situation and measures by the government, but instead of dwelling on the subject under discussion, he started criticising Shahbaz Sharif without naming him. Chohan said there was a leader of a party who made ‘Bhangras’ by gesturing with fingers and shaking his back. He said such leader called himself “Khadim-e-Ala” but these leaders made the country under 96 billion dollar in debts during 10 years rule.

These remarks enraged the opposition members and they began criticisng the treasury members and demanded apology from Chohan which he did not make and continued to ignore this demand. When both sides increased their shouting against each other’s leaderships the deputy speaker tried to control the situation. But nobody listened to him or complied with his commands. Fayyaz Chohan and PML-N member Jafar Ali came hard on each other by cursing and abusing each other.