6:20 AM
LAHORE: ‘Another day, another ruckus’ has become the tagline for Punjab Assembly sessions. For the third time in a row, the session was disrupted after members of the opposition and treasury benches hurled allegations and used abusive language against each other.
Legislators, regardless of their party affiliations, chose to politicise the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) medicine issue during today’s (Friday) session.
The assembly resumed the session after two days at 10:58am, around two hours over the scheduled time.
Punjab Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rana Sanaullah gave his replies during the question hour session assigned to the Home Department.
The agenda of the house was to debate the PIC fiasco, but none of the members showed any seriousness towards discussing the issue.
Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz, speaking on a point of order, said that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should disclose the name of the “high-level personality” he has alleged to have been involved in the spread of dengue and register an FIR against him.
Riaz threatened to disrupt the proceedings and demanded that Sanaullah apologise for his remarks against the treasury benches. He also lashed out at Shahbaz Sharif, saying that the chief minister has successfully completed his journey from “Khadim-e-Aala to Qatil-e-Aala”.
Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal was then forced to suspend the session for ten minutes and call Raja Riaz to his chamber. Riaz later returned and announced that the Punjab Government had assured him that Shahbaz Sharif will come to the house on Monday and inform them of the PIC issue.
When proceedings resumed, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Zulfiqar Gondal pointed out that neither the Parliamentary Secretary on Health nor any officials of the Health Department were present. Sanaullah assured him that every word of the debate would be conveyed to the chief minister.
Sameena Khawar Hayat of Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) and Shaikh Allaudin of the Unification Bloc also hurled allegations against each other.
Khawar, during the debate, said that “Qatil-e-Aala” was responsible for the PIC deaths. She said that Shahbaz Sharif was running the province on “ad hocism” and demanded that he come to the assembly and answer their questions.
Allaudin then rose up and demanded that the chair stop Khawar from making personal attacks on the chief minister.
Both of them then resorted to using abusive language against each other. Mehar Ishtiaq, Chair of the House, then adjourned the session.
Sajida Mir of PPP and Dr Ghazala of PML-N later exchanged harsh words in front of the media over the criticism of party leadership.
Posted in: NATIONAL
