Daily Times

LAHORE: Female members of the treasury and opposition benches in the Punjab Assembly exchanged harsh words after the session on Friday.

The entire fiasco started when an opposition member was criticising the government over its bad governance during the assembly proceedings. Female members of the treasury benches, in an attempt to foil the speech against the government, chanted slogans against female legislators of the opposition benches.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Farzana Butt and her companions were the powerful vocals behind the slogans. Resultantly, Pakistan Muslim League member Khadija Umar Farooqi stood on her bench and reciprocated with the same.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Rahila Anwar along with other PTI workers backed her colleague Khadija and responded strongly over the chanting of government representatives.

Speaker Rana Iqbal, as custodian of the House, muted both sides, however once the session concluded, Khadija Umar Farooqi, out of routine, came out through the government legislators lobby and personally challenged the political services of PML-N female legislators, especially Salma Butt and Farzana Butt.

Khadija passed some direct remarks at Salma and Farzana, saying that such people disturb the learned environment of the House. Generally, Khadija is considered a well mannered and respected lady in the House.

Khadija’s direct taunts at the PML-N female members aggravated the situation, as both sides started using non-parliamentary words besides pointing fingers at each other’s personal characters.

Heated arguments continued for some time until male legislators of the treasury controlled the situation by taking the female members away from the lobby.

The PML legislator immediately left the lobby and went out of the assembly building without talking to media regarding the matter, but the treasury members, while talking to journalists, claimed that she (Khadija Umar) did injustice with them.

Punjab Assembly session on Friday started one hour and 15 minutes late to its scheduled time at 9am under the chair of Speaker Rana Iqbal, but due to lack of quorum, the session was adjourned till Monday.

During the Friday’s session, question hour about the agriculture, food and culture departments was taken up. Provincial minister Farukh Javed and Parliamentary Secretary for Culture Rana Arshad answered the queries of their colleagues.