‘If harmed, will register FIR against CJP’

PML-N legislator insists on personal security at public expense

LAHORE: Expressing his resentment over the withdrawal of security by the orders of the Supreme Court, an emotionally charged legislator of the ruling party warned that the First Information Report (FIR) would be registered against the Chief Justice if anything happened to him or his family members.

Despite the instructions of Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan to sit down, the PML-N MPA Jamil Hassan Khan went on delivering his ‘fiery speech’.

Speaking on a point of order, Hassan said he was abducted but owing to the timely intervention of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif he was rescued. He said two abductors were gunned down in an encounter by the police while the rest were still at large. The legislator claimed that he was receiving threatening calls from the abductors but he has no security this time as all the security officials have been called back to their station. He said if he and his family members were harmed, the FIR would be registered against the CJP who had passed the order of withdrawal of security of VIPs.

No legislator of the Opposition benches reacted against Hassan’s speech in the House. But when the speaker ordered him not to speak in such a way, Hassan sat on his seat for a while but the very next moment he left the House. Few legislators were also seen lauding his speech over the issue of security when he left the House.



A pandemonium rose in the House when the treasury benches got passed The Punjab (Regularisation of Service) Bill 2018 and the Opposition termed the government’s move an attempt of pre-poll rigging by regularising the employees whom the rulers had recruited in different departments.

Opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said it was an undemocratic way that the rules were being suspended merely to get the aforesaid bill passed at that time when the elections were just around the corner. He said people would foil the government’s attempt and would not vote for them in the upcoming election. “Where was the government when employees were protesting on streets and they were being baton-charged by the police? It is  simply an attempt of pre-poll rigging by the government,” he remarked.



PTI’s legislator Mian Aslam Iqbal said why the paramedics were not being regularised by the government and why the government told those protesters that there was a separate board which would regularise their jobs. He said this discrimination must end and all the employees should be treated with justice. Another PTI legislator Muhammad Arif Abbasi said what sort of ‘theft’ the government wanted to hide through getting this bill passed.

The atmosphere of the House turned into a pandemonium when PTI’s legislator Asif Mehmood was not given enough time by the speaker to express his views over adjournment motions of which replies were still pending and against The Punjab (Regularisation of Service) Bill 2018. The speaker said he would give him only one minute to express his views, but Abbasi left the House in protest for not being given enough time to speak like other legislators.

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the opposition was rendering the role of ‘hypocrite’, adding the opposition was seen in the camps of those employees who staged protests for regularisation of their jobs but when the government was going to regularise them, the opposition claimed it was ‘not a matter of people interest’. He said creating ruckus by the opposition over regularisation of employees actually unmasked their true faces.

The opposition on Friday pointed out quorum for three times after short intervals but the government succeeded in showing the required number of its legislators in the assembly. The House started on 10:23am while the scheduled time was of 9:00am. The speaker, however, pended all questions relating to Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department by Monday as the minister concerned and parliamentary secretary were not present in the House. The speaker adjourned the House by Monday 2:00pm.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2018.