Childish protest: Opposition locks AJK assembly doors, boycotts session

MUZAFFARABAD:

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir opposition parties took an unusual measure on Tuesday to halt a legislative session — locking up the assembly. 

Members of the opposition parties — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) — locked the doors of the assembly and sat in front of them, forcing the government to stop the session.

In all the hustle, three female MLA’s of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party — Farzana Yaqoob, Sadaf Sheikh and Shamshad Aziz — who had arrived early for the session, were locked inside the hall.

“The government has not fulfilled its commitment. Twelve out of the 25 secretaries in AJK are on stay orders including the Service Tribunal chairman, who is also running his department on a stay order, which is the worst form of bad governance,” said Deputy Opposition Leader Tariq Farooq.

AJK Minister for Higher Education Matloob Inqilabi said that it was the right of the opposition to sit in or boycott a session, but to lock the assembly hall is unconstitutional and unacceptable.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2015.