‘Will not tolerate heckling, sloganeering’

PML-N warns if MPAs are suspended, polls for CM will not be held

LAHORE:

Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Deputy General Secretary Atta Tarrar has warned that if any sloganeering occurred during a session, or any kind of heckling was attempted, that person would be dealt with even more badly.

Tarar, in his remarks was alluding to an incident in the Marriot Hotel Islamabad, where an old man was beaten up by parliamentarians for allegedly calling PTI defectors ‘turncoats’ and using foul language. Holding a press conference in Lahore, Tarar, whose party came to power earlier this week, said that they tolerated enough of the “Go Nawaz go slogan”. According to Tarar, PML-N parliamentarians heard this slogan chanted at them in parks, hotels and aboard planes since 2017.

He went to on warn people of consequences of raising slogans in presence of their parliamentarians.

Regarding CM Punjab elections, Tarar threatened that if their members were suspended and not allowed to vote, they will not let the CM Punjab election take place. He added that they have approached the court to guard the right of every parliamentarian to vote and said they hope that High Court will give an appropriate decision.

He added that Pervez Elahi, in violation of parliamentary norms, prorogued the session knowing that he did not have enough votes to win; this motivated going to the courts. Tarar even alleged that Assembly staff was running Elahi’s campaign. The PML-N had gone to court, firstly to get elections held at the earliest and secondly to stop Pervez Elahi from exercising the powers to become speaker, despite being a candidate for CM Punjab himself.

Tarar also said that they will recommend the names of Shehzad Akbar and Shebaz Gill to be put on ECL, claiming that they were trying to flee the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2022.