Punjab Assembly: Opp walks out over ‘drama’ taunts

Treasury refuses to allow resolution against drone strikes in the house.

LAHORE:

The opposition led by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) boycotted Punjab Assembly proceedings on Tuesday after the treasury benches refused to entertain their resolution about US drone attacks.

Shortly after question hour, opposition members demanded that they be allowed to present a resolution in the house condemning drone strikes in Pakistan. But Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that official business must be taken up first. Then the opposition could present the resolution and discuss the repercussions of drone strikes in the house.

The minister accused the PTI of “staging a drone drama”. The party was “working on a Jewish agenda” to destabilise the country at a time when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was trying to build a consensus within Pakistan on drone attacks, he said.

Opposition members reacted by standing on their seats and chanting slogans calling for an end to drone strikes and “Pakistan’s slavery to the USA”. Treasury members chanted “Stop the drama” and “Go away, Jewish lobby” in response.



The opposition members walked out of the house in protest. Sanaullah urged them to stay and “hear the truth about your drone drama”.

Speaker Rana Iqbal sent Ministers Tahir Khalil Sindhu and Malik Nadeem Kamran to try and persuade the opposition to come back. They later informed the house that the opposition had demanded that Sanaullah first withdraw his claim that the PTI protest over drone strikes was a drama.

Sanaullah did not agree. He said that the opposition had achieved its aim today of getting publicity for their “drone drama” in the news. He said that the opposition had no interest in the real issue. It only wanted to continue with its “drama”, he said.

Punjab University

The minister also briefed the house on the latest situation at Punjab University, where police have arrested 22 students following clashes with police. He said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had decided to purge the university of “criminal elements”.

Dozens of protesters clashed with police on Monday after Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) activists were cleared out of a hostel at the campus. Sanaullah said that the clashes stemmed from an incident on November 29, after Professor Naeemullah of the PU Law College awarded a canteen contract to a party not favoured by the IJT. He said that 40 to 50 students detained and tortured the professor.

He said that the police had arrested several students for assaulting the professor, after which IJT activists came out on the roads, set fire to a bus and committed various acts of hooliganism.

He said that the police had registered a total of 11 cases against 30 students. He said that 80 “criminals” were involved in the clashes. These were not students, he said, but “IJT rascals” who had spoiled the peaceful atmosphere at the university.

The speaker adjourned the session till Wednesday morning.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2013.