Daily Times

LAHORE: Joint opposition, comprising Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) members, Thursday continued their boycott of the Punjab Assembly (PA) proceedings forthe second consecutive day and held a parallel session in protest outside the assembly’s building.

The protest came after the PA Speaker Rana Iqbal – the other day – gave a shut up call to Mian Aslam Iqbal of the PTI when he questioned “biased” role of the speaker.

The symbolic PA session that lasted for half-an-hour saw opposition members chanting slogans against Sharif brothers and demanded the speaker to take back “unparliamentary” words and seek an apology from the opposition member.

They announced to hold the parallel session on a daily basis if their demand was not met. The symbolic session was chaired by Dr Nosheen Hamid, which adopted the same agenda of the day fixed by the assembly secretariat and held the pre-budget discussion too.

Interestingly, opposition members pointed at the incomplete quorum inside the House which was facing a dearth of lawmakers. Anyhow, opposition leader Main Mehmoodur Rasheed, Aslam Iqbal, Sadia Sohail Rana, Arif Abasi, Faiza Malik, Khadija Umar Farooqi, Ahmad Shah Khaga and Sardar Hasan Akhtar participated in the symbolic session and delivered speeches.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly session on Thursday was started one hour and 29 minutes late to its scheduled time with Speaker Rana Iqbal in the chair. During the question hour session, many treasury members, including Anees Qureshi, Mian Rafiq, Maulana Ilyas Chinioti and others drew the lawmaker’s attention to what they believed was illegal construction of marriage halls and a housing society on the Punjab University’s land in violation of the top court’s orders.

Answering to the queries, Mehwish Sultana said that such lease of Punjab University land was permitted in 2001 by the then president of Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman Attaur Rehman for covering educational expenses of the university.

She ensured the house that leased land could be withdrawn from contractors within a month’s notice. She also denied construction of any housing scheme on the land of the PU.

The House also adopted a resolution in connection with the International Women’s Day moved by Azma Bukhari, which appreciated the Punjab government for its efforts to empower women in the province.

The House completed its proceedings in the absence of opposition parties. The House adopted the pre-budget discussion in which several treasury members, including Shamila Aslam, Waheed Gul, Asghar Ali Manda and Ilyas Chinioti, Suriyya Naseem, Ahmad Khan Baloch participated and gave their recommendations about various development schemes in their constituencies. Later, the speaker adjourned the session till today (Friday).