Stand-off in assembly: Opposition members end boycott after speaker’s apology

Application filed against Rana Iqbal for starting session without proper quorum

LAHORE: Opposition members in the Punjab Assembly on Monday announced an end to their boycott after Speaker Rana Iqbal apologised for his comments against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s legislator Aslam Iqbal.

The joint opposition had decided to boycott House proceedings after the speaker told the PTI lawmaker to ‘shut up’ during a session.

Members of the opposition have decided to return to the assembly after a delegation led by Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, provincial ministers Nadeem Kamran and Chaudhry Shafiq held talks with the opposition and convinced them to negotiate with the speaker in his chamber.

The opposition had demanded an apology from the speaker to the PTI MPA. It also accused the speaker of misleading the assembly by declaring the quorum complete even when it was not.

During the talks Speaker Rana Iqbal had agreed to fulfil both the demands of the opposition; however, he ignored the second demand of the opposition lawmakers which was to launch an investigation against him starting the session with incomplete quorum.

Due to the speaker’s inaction on the second demand, PTI’s Arif Abbasi filed an application to the speaker for initiating an inquiry over his misleading of the House.

Assembly session

The assembly session on Monday started one hour and 25 minutes late and without the opposition’s presence.  Making use of the opposition’s empty seats, the house also passed “The Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill 2017.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2017.