Opposition protest mars PA proceedings

The Punjab Assembly reverberated with anti-government slogans on Monday after the opposition grilled the treasury benches over the increase in the prices of petroleum products.

As the opposition members protested, Law Minister Raja Basharat urged Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, who was presiding over the session, to hold an inquiry into recording of video clips of the protest and placards carried by them in the assembly. The deputy speaker referred the matter to an inquiry committee.

Although the session was fixed for general discussion on supplementary budget for fiscal year 2020-21, the opposition decided to stage protest over the price hike.

PPP’s parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza, during the discussion on supplementary budget, came down hard on the PTI-led government. He accused the government of benefitting the flour, sugar, medicines and petrol mafia at the expense of the people by increasing the prices of the products. He said the prices of the products had increased after the prime minister’s intervention.

He also alleged that all areas except Dera Ghazi Khan had been ignored in the provincial budget.

As PML-N’s former speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan started criticising the price hike of petroleum products, the party’s lawmakers created pandemonium.

Amid slogans, some opposition lawmakers started making video of the protest and the deputy speaker referred the matter to a committee on the request of the law minister.

PML-N’s Kanwal Liaquat said around 80 per cent of the budget allocated for the police was spent on salaries and only 5% for operational purpose. She asked how a poor person could expect dispensation of justice at the hand of the police in such a situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2020.