Panamagate aftermath: Uproar in AJKLA over pro-Nawaz resolution

Opposition members tear copies of the agenda as they protested move by treasury benches

MUZAFFARABAD: There was pandemonium in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly (AJKLA) on Tuesday after opposition parties vehemently opposed an attempt by the treasury benches to present a resolution supporting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in wake of the Panamagate verdict.

Tuesday’s session had been called to deliberate the worsening human rights situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

But members from the treasury benches, who are from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), presented a resolution hailing services of Nawaz for the region, a document which echoed a similar resolution which was presented in the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) on Monday.

Realising that the resolution was not part of the listed agenda, the opposition parties in the assembly raised hue and cry and tore copies of the agenda to express their anger against the resolution.

“We were told that the assembly session had been summoned in connection with the situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentary leader Majid Khan told the media after the session.



“As the session started under the chair of Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir, they set the matter of the IoK situation aside and presented the resolution to praise PM Nawaz, which was unacceptable to all opposition parties,” he added.

Khan, whose party had gone to the Supreme Court against Nawaz in the case, noted that two judges had recommended disqualifying the premier while the other three were dissatisfied with the evidence which PML-N submitted.

He added that since Nawaz still had to face the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), how could they allow to pass a resolution in favour of such a person. “This was the time to show solidarity with the people of IoK, but PML-N lawmakers want to please their corrupt leader,” Khan added.

Later while addressing a news conference, Senior Minister Tariq Farooq said that the AJKLA speaker had formed a committee to probe why copies of the agenda had been torn and that the assembly memberships of six opposition members had been suspended till the committee submits its report.

The members whose membership had been suspended include Opposition Leader Chaudhry Yaseen, Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Amir Ghafar Lone, PTI’s Abdul Majid Khan, Dewan Mohaideen and Muslim Conference’s Sagir Chugtai.

“All the destroyed copies of agenda were confiscated to present them as evidence before the committee. Opposition assembly members will also appear before the committee to record their statements, Farooq added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2017.