Legislators of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) walked out of the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday in an unprecedented protest on a private members’ day, while the speaker refused to allow a resolution calling for the formation of a separate province in south Punjab to be moved.
Private members’ days are traditionally a chance for opposition legislators to criticise government policy and it is tradition that the quorum is not pointed out and legislators do not walk out or boycott proceedings. The PPP’s walkout on Tuesday, after the speaker denied Opposition Leader Raja Riaz the chance to make a speech about law and order, was criticised by their opposition colleagues in the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) as well as the treasury.
The session began at around 11.28am, some 90 minutes late, with question hour about the Agriculture Department, handled by Minister Ahmad Ali Aulakh. Nine resolutions were tabled and five were passed, the rest being put off till next week.
Hassan Murtaza of the PPP then rose on a point of order to discuss various crimes around Punjab over the last week, including the burning and shooting of 14 people in a blood feud in Gujranwala, the beating to death of an SHO in Hadiara, and an armed robbery at the house of PPP MPA Sajida Mir. Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal interrupted him and said he should move a call-attention notice or press for a day to be reserved for a debate on law and order.
Riaz stood up in support of Murtaza and began attacking the provincial government’s performance. He said the chief minister had “fled” to Turkey while the provincial capital had become a “daku raj”. He said Lahore had never seen so much crime and such little order.
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah interrupted the opposition leader and suggested that a day be reserved for a debate on law and order. The speaker backed the suggestion but Riaz wanted to continue with his speech. The speaker stopped him, prompting a walkout and boycott by the PPP.
The PML-Q legislators stayed in the house. Humaira Owais Shahid of the PML-Q condemned the boycott. The speaker asked Zakat and Ushr Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran to persuade the PPP members to return. He later told the house that they wanted the debate on Wednesday, but would not return to the house.
Sanaullah said Wednesday was fine for the debate, but urged the speaker not to accept the opposition demand for a debate straight after question hour. He said the debate should begin after legislation. He said that he had spent a lot of time in opposition but had never walked out on a private business day. He said that the PPP’s boycott was unprecedented.
The other major issue of the day was Mohsin Leghari’s attempt to move a resolution expressing support for the formation of a separate south Punjab province and his subsequent debate with the law minister over what the proper constitutional method for such a process is.
Leghari said the resolution was meant to be a signal to the federation that it should pass a bill for the division of the Punjab. He said that there was no requirement that the assembly consider a redrawing of boundaries only after the National Assembly had passed a bill in this regard. He asked why, if the Punjab government did not want to pass the resolution, it had been made part of the agenda on June 25, 2010.
Sanaullah argued that after the 18th Amendment, the provincial assembly had a kind of veto over the division of the province. It was only after the national parliament passed such a bill that the provincial assembly should consider it. He said that both a bill and a resolution in this regard would require a two-thirds majority, which neither side had in the house at present.
He said that the assembly secretariat had mistakenly made Leghari’s resolution part of the agenda on June 25.
The speaker overruled Leghari’s demand for the resolution and adjourned the session till 10am on Wednesday.
The house also passed five resolutions on Tuesday: Raheela Khadim Hussain’s resolution for a ban on the use of mobile phones in educational institutions; Ejaz Ahmad Kahloon’s resolution for the establishment of Sargodha Development Authority; Waris Kallu’s resolution for a cardiology centre in Khushab; Sardar Khalid Saleem Bhatti’s resolution for a water treatment plant in Burewala; and Sajida Mir’s resolution for more controls on water pollution.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2012.
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