PML-N tricked as no-trust against Elahi scuttled

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tricked the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the Punjab Assembly on Sunday, scuttling the ‘no-confidence motion’ against Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

The PML-N’s lawmakers were meeting a few yards away from the assembly hall, where the proceedings were being conducted but they were unaware of the commencement of the proceedings on the no-confidence motion.

The PML-N’s lawmakers claimed that the delay in their reaching the assembly hall was because they were not being allowed to enter the assembly premises. However, the PTI lawmakers denied their hand in any attempts to stop the PML-N lawmakers.

A woman legislator of the PTI said that the PML-N parliamentary party should have held their meeting a day before the session, rather than engaging their lawmakers at that time when the house proceedings had started.

Nawabzada Waseem Khan Badozai, from the panel of chairmen, chaired the session on Sunday. He quickly took up no-confidence motion against the speaker and gave the floor to the mover, Samiullah Khan of the PML-N. However, Khan was not present in the house.

After repeatedly calling Samiullah Khan’s name, the chair was left with no other option but to decline the motion. He announced that “the motion is declined”. Later he adjourned the house proceedings till June 6.

The PML-N lawmakers entered the assembly hall, when the chair was announcing the adjournment of the session. They were surprised to see that the PTI lawmakers were sitting on the treasury side. Then there was the shock announcement for them that their motion had been declined.

During the proceedings, which lasted only 10 to 12 minutes, the former ministers in the PTI-led provincial government, were sitting on the front row with former chief minister Sardar Usman Buzdar occupying the chair of the leader of the house.

Some PML-N lawmakers, including Azma Zahid Bukhari, were visibly angry at the delay in reaching the assembly hall. Samiullah Khan and other members tried to calm down the situation. “I have the right to ask question, how all this happened, when we were present here,” she asked.

“Why couldn’t we reach the assembly hall in time, on whose directions we stayed away from the assembly hall,” she asked further. “I have also served the party, I can ask question,” the lawmaker lamented.

Second motion

After the house was adjourned and the no-confidence motion was declined by the chair, the PML-N lawmakers submitted a second no-confidence motion against Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi before Assembly Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti.

Both the PML-N and the PTI blamed each other for the sealing of the assembly and not allowing the lawmakers and the journalists from entering the assembly premises. Interestingly, both the PML-N and the PTI lawmakers were seen knocking the doors of the assembly to enter the premises.

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The PML-N said that this happened on the order of the speaker. However, the PTI lawmakers said that the Punjab police were under the control of Hamza Shehbaz and the assembly gates were closed down by the Punjab police on his direction.

Assembly Secretary Bhatti, meanwhile, rejected the impression that the assembly secretariat had sealed the assembly. “Why would we adopt such measures,” he said in response to a query, adding that this matter “is under the domain of Hamza Shehbaz”.

Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi said that there was no government in the province. He said the nation would hear the good news and everyone would see the PTI coming into power in Punjab again.

He said both father and son – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz – are scared and were looking for a safe place to hide. Former chief minister Buzdar said: “The time has changed. The PML-N’s dream of coming into power will never come true,” he later said.

Later, a joint parliamentary party meeting of the PTI and its ally, the PML-Quaid (PML-Q), passed a resolution, condemning the retaliatory actions of the inspector general of the Punjab police. Through another resolution, they also condemned raids on the houses of the assembly officers.

The meeting was attended by Speaker Elahi, PTI parliamentary leader Sibtain Khan, former chief minister Buzdar, Basharat Raja, Dr Murad Ras, Aslam Iqbal, Mahmood Rasheed and other members of Punjab assembly from both the parties.

Elahi told the meeting that Shahbaz and Hamza had made Punjab a police state. He said that thanks to the Almighty Allah, the no-confidence motion against him had failed and the members had reposed confidence in him.

Elahi strongly condemned raids on the houses of Assembly Secretary Bhatti, Secretary Coordination Inayatullah Lak and the arrest of Parliamentary Affairs Director General Rai Mumtaz Hussain.

He said that the police took control of the Assembly Secretariat and prevented the staff from entering the premises. “Police are carrying out these frivolous actions on the orders of Shahbaz Sharif,” he said.