PML-N continues Punjab assembly boycott

Calls speaker biased, says active MPs made backbenchers

LAHORE: Political tensions escalate in Punjab as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the biggest opposition party in the province, has refused to participate in the Punjab Assembly’s budget session until the ban on six of its MPAs is lifted.

The decision to continue the protest was taken at a meeting of the PML-N’s parliamentary committee in Lahore on Tuesday. The PML-N decided not to participate in any house proceeding until the ban is taken back.

Announcing the decision, MPA Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members had actually aggravated the situation in the assembly. He said Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi should take a leaf out of the National Assembly speaker’s book who had called a session on the demand of the opposition parties.

“Not only our very legal right of calling a session was infringed but also the information minister flat-out refused to call a session, when it was not even his prerogative to speak on behalf of the speaker,” said Khan.



“The government wants to suppress our voice to ensure a comfortable sail for their budget,” he alleged, adding that education and health budgets had been slashed to half.

The PML-N leader also complained that seats allotted to the PML-N MPs had been changed and many of the party’s more vocal parliamentarians had been moved to the backbenches.

“We want to give the speaker his due respect, but he should also act like speaker — a custodian of the house,” he said.

Meanwhile speaking to media, Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz also announced the party would boycott the session till the ban was lifted. He also condemned the issuance of ‘fabricated’ footage by the Assembly.

“The actual scene was tempered, and tables and chairs thrown to add drama to the scene,” he said, chiding the speaker for showing bias and the PTI for slashing the provincial budget.