Speaker moves for action against opposition members

Criticises absence from requisitioned session despite marking attendance

LAHORE:

Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan has sought advice from the law department over how to deal with the opposition in light of the failure of its members to turn up despite a day’s expenditure of Rs27.1 million on a session summoned on its requisition.

As the house proceedings commenced on Monday, no opposition lawmaker was present. This irked the speaker who expressed grave concern and described the act as “deception” through which only the attendance in the assembly had been marked for the purpose of receiving allowances and boycotting the session.

“It is tantamount to deceiving this house and such conduct cannot be tolerated,” Speaker Khan warned the opposition. He said the cost of a day’s assembly session was Rs27.1 million, which was not a joke.

If the opposition had requested the summoning of the session then it should have come to the forum to talk about the issues being faced by the people rather than staying away from the assembly, he remarked.

He said that on one hand the opposition moved a requisition to summon the session while on the other hand its members confined themselves outside the assembly premises for using derogatory language against the government.

During the session, the speaker revealed the list of the opposition’s 61 lawmakers who had marked their attendance and left the assembly premises.

Speaker Khan sought advice from the law department over what proceedings could be initiated against those opposition MPAs who had just marked their attendance for getting the travel and dwelling allowance (TADA) but avoided attending the proceedings despite requisitioning the session.

As the question and answer session ended, treasury lawmaker Malik Arshad pointed out the quorum, upon which the speaker ordered ringing of the bells and then prorogued the proceedings for an indefinite period.