Daily Times

LAHORE: Opposition parties, while demanding the speaker to take action on the disqualification reference against Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, jointly walked out of the Punjab Assembly on Thursday.

Both sides – opposition and the treasury benches – shouted slogans against each other’s leadership, which created fuss in the House.

Defending the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah termed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protest in House an attempt to pressurise the Supreme Court (SC) to get a favourable decision in the Panama leaks case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the elder brother of Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif.

On a point of order, PTI-backed opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said that his party had submitted a reference against Shahbaz Sharif a week ago (on January 20) in the speaker’s office to disqualify him from the office under articles 62 and 63 of the constitution.

He said that violating the Supreme Court orders and misusing his powers, the CM had facilitated his family to install their two sugar mills – Ittafaq Sugar Mills and Chaudhry Sugar Mills – in cotton growing areas of Rahim Yar Khan, an area where relocation of any sugar mill is strictly prohibited.

It is pertinent to mention here that in the disqualification reference against Shahbaz Sharif, the opposition leader stated that a court of London had already declared that Shahbaz Sharif owed $17 million to a financial institution as a director of the Hudaibiya Paper Mills in 1999, and that the amount was paid back in February 2000. He stated that this amount of $17 million was transferred to London through money laundering, so its money trail was also not available.

He urged the speaker to accommodate his reference and forward it to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) because after such a misuse of powers, the CM should be disqualified. He added that due to such corrupt acts, Shahbaz should not be considered sadiq (truthful) and ameen (trustworthy) as per articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

On this, when the speaker initially showed a cold shoulder to the opposition leader’s request, all the opposition legislators, including members of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, stood on their benches and started a protest by shouting slogans against the ruling Sharifs.

In response, some of the women legislators, and a male member of the treasury, also raised slogans against the PTI leadership.

It may also be mentioned here that when the opposition started its move against the CM, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s only member in the House played neutral and left the chamber to avoid taking sides in the matter.

The Punjab Assembly session was started an hour and 10 minutes late from its scheduled time of 10am under Speaker Rana Iqbal. The House adopted the question hour about the Industries, Commerce & Investment and Special Education departments, besides holding a general discussion on the Health. The session would resume today at 10am.