Punjab Assembly: Opposition leader ‘demands’ immediate session

Basra proposes amendment to rules so fewer members can requisition session.

LAHORE:

The opposition parties in the Punjab have demanded that the government call the Punjab Assembly into session and issue the annual schedule of sessions for the assembly.

Addressing press conference in the Punjab Assembly cafeteria, Leader of the Opposition Mian Mehmoodul Rashid of the PTI said that if the government did not call a session, the PTI and its allies would hold a public assembly in front of the assembly hall on The Mall. He said that the opposition had submitted an application to the PA Secretariat asking it to issue the annual schedule of the house.

According to the PA rules of procedure, one third of the total members in the house can get together to requisition a session. But in the house of 371 members, the opposition consists of just 55 MPAs from the PTI, PPP, JI, PML-Z, JUI-F and PML-Q, as well as independents. The government has the support of 310 members.



The opposition has also previously raised the issue of not being able to summon a session in order to discuss various issues.

Rashid said that the opposition wanted to discuss drone attacks, inflation, wheat and other issues. He accused Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif of “abandoning” the province and leaving it to bureaucrats who did not know how to govern. He said that the law and order situation in the Punjab was a result of Sharif’s governance.

He also asked Law Minister Rana Sanaullah to refrain from criticising PTI chief Imran Khan.

Faiza Malik of the PPP said that the first five months of the PML-N governments in the Centre and the Punjab had been a disappointment. She noted that the PML-N government had not even formed parliamentary standing committees or appointed parliamentary secretaries.

Deputy Opposition Leader Sibtain Khan and Dr Waseem Akhtar of the JI alleged that the government was preparing to rig the local body elections and demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan take notice.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, former deputy opposition leader Shaukat Mehmood Basra of the PPP suggested that the PTI move a bill to amend the Rules of Procedure of the Punjab Assembly (1997) to reduce the number of members required to requisition a session from one-third of the house, which comes to 93 members, to 20 members. He said that Opposition Leader Rashid should campaign inside and outside the house to get the rules amended

He said that the opposition’s demands at press conferences for the assembly to be called into session were not working and it should instead seek to amend the rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2013.