In a U-turn, Elahi takes Punjab Assembly brawl to court

PML-Q leader and Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi has taken the matter of a brawl at provincial legislature to a district court in contradiction to his earlier stance that “the courts could not intervene in assembly’s business” in a legal battle with Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari.

Elahi on Monday approached the district court, seeking registration of first information report (FIR) against newly-elected Chief Minister of Punjab Hamza Shehbaz, his fifteen MPAs and other officials in bureaucracy for allegedly attacking him and his party MPAs on April 16 during a clash between opposition and treasury benches lawmakers.

It is pertinent to mention that when Deputy Speaker Mazari had moved to court challenging Speaker Elahi’s notification through which his powers had been withdrawn, Elahi’s counsel seemed relying upon different citations with an argument that “the assembly’s business could not be taken to courts and the courts could not intervene into assembly’s business”.

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Surprisingly, Speaker Elahi told the court that Qilla Gujar Singh police was not registering FIR against the aforementioned accused who allegedly thrashed their male and female MPAs.

He claimed in his petition that during the election of the CM on April 16 around 200 to 300 armed police officials including officials in private uniform entered the Punjab Assembly premises on direction of PML-N’s candidate Hamza Shehbaz, Inspector General Police (IGP) Punjab and the Chief Secretary.

According to the plea, PML-N’s MPAs Rana Mashhood Khan, Jahangir Khanzada and others with active connivance with Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Afzal, Deputy Commissioner Umar Sher Chattha and others attacked the petitioner and his MPAs leaving them injured. Their women MPAs also received injuries, he maintained.

The incident was aired by different TV channels in Pakistan and out of Pakistan which created fear in general public, contended the petitioner.

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The petitioner being aggrieved person approached police station Qila Gujjar Singh for getting an FIR registered against the aforesaid but police did not bother to entertain his application, read the plea.

He implored that the police officials are bound to register case on the complaint of the petitioner under section 154 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and to take legal action.

He prayed the court to direct the respondent SHO to register FIR against the aforementioned individuals.