Pervaiz Elahi adjourns PA before it starts

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly session was adjourned on Thursday for May 16 without tabling any resolution. Speaker Pervaiz Elahi called off the sitting just half an hour before it’s beginning.

Pervaiz Elahi, later, told a presser that Hamza Shehbaz, Shehbaz Sharif, the PA deputy speaker and the Punjab IGP are responsible for the crisis in the assembly. He said MPAs were attacked at the behest of Shehbaz Sharif, adding the police interference had breached the privilege of the assembly. He said there is no constitutional crisis in the province and Usman Buzdar is still the chief minister.

The Chaudhry said: “We had accepted the court judgment regarding the Punjab chief minister’s election, but the situation deteriorated when police attacked MPAs inside the assembly without any justification. Our MPA Asiya Amjad was tortured. Till now, she is on the ventilator.”

He said that under the Constitution, all activities for the election of PA speaker, deputy speaker and chief minister and no-confidence motions etc are conducted by the speaker but the deputy speaker conducted the entire election from the visitors’ gallery that is unconstitutional.

“Furthermore, where our members were supposed to cast their votes, police had blocked that lobby,” he said, adding that through the illegal police interference, the assembly privilege was breached and in this regard, a motion is under consideration of the Privileges Committee on which action will be taken in accordance with the Rules of Procedure.

“The court should tell us whether the assembly business is to be run by police or us? Even today, without the permission of the speaker, policemen in plainclothes are present at the assembly gates and compound. We will give photographs of these policemen to the media,” he said.

PMLQ MPA Basharat Raja, PTI MPA Murad Ras also spoke at the presser while MPAs Mian Aslam Iqbal, Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed, Sibtain Khan, Ch Zaheeruddin, Hafiz Ammar Yasir and women MPAs were present.

Reacting to the development, PMLN Vice-President Maryam Nawaz took to Twitter and lashed out at the PTI government in Punjab for deliberately delaying Hamza’s oath-taking ceremony. "Despite the clear orders of the court, the swearing-in of Hamza Shehbaz is being arrogantly prevented," she said.

“Making fun of the Constitution, law, and courts with such unmitigated effrontery cannot be the work of a normal human being.” She said that the “ghosts of Bani Gala” must be dealt with severely since they do not seem to pay heed to verbal warnings. “This is a province of 120 million people and it's not a joke.”

Maryam said that these “lunatics should either be admitted to mental asylums or face serious treason and contempt of court cases.” “It’s rather surprising that they have resorted to doing such childish things. It’s hard to think how our country was being run by mental and psychiatric patients. Thankfully, Pakistan has survived!”

In the meanwhile, the PMLN has formally contacted the federal government to take action against the violators of the Constitution. Addressing a press conference on Thursday along with Punjab Secretay-General Owais Leghari and Malik Ahmad Khan at the party's central secretariat, PMLN Deputy Secretary-General Ataullah Tarar has said that the federal government has been formally contacted to take action against the violators of the Constitution.

He said they had again adjourned the house because their numbers were not enough. He said the motion of no-confidence against the speaker had also been filed. Tarar said that Speaker Pervaiz Elahi had himself convened the meeting and its agenda was released in which it was written that a no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker would be presented in the meeting.

No-confidence motions have been filed against both the speaker and the deputy speaker. “According to the Constitution and law, there is a proposed time within which the motion must be voted on and this is done by secret ballot,” he said, adding Pervaiz Elahi was playing with fire and doing unconstitutional things.

“We have gathered 197 members in Model Town. We have no interest in the deputy speaker. All we know is that the deputy speaker's chair had refused to violate the Constitution and held elections according to the rules and regulations,” Owais Leghari said and added that this was why he was attacked at the behest of Pervaiz Elahi but he did not adjourn the meeting in panic.

He said Pervaiz Elahi again made excuses to run away from the house on Thursday and could not give any reason as to what was the legal reason for postponing the session. To a question, Atta Tarar said that he has spoken to the federal government and formally requested that action be taken under Article 6. He said that if the chief minister is not sworn in, we will start legal consultation.

Malik Mohammad Ahmad Khan said that the list of crimes has become long and this chain has started from the federation and reached Punjab. They have violated the Constitution. The federation has been advised that cases be registered against the violators of the Constitution.

In another development, 17 PTI MPAs on Thursday filed an intra-court appeal against the Lahore High Court decision ordering the Punjab governor to complete the oath-taking process of the chief minister-elect by April 28.On Thursday, despite the ruling by the Lahore High Court, Governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema did not administer the oath to newly-elected chief minister Hamza Shehbaz rather he wrote to the president to seek his guidance on the issue.

Meanwhile, Hamza Shehbaz chaired a parliamentry party meeting on Thursday. Members from Aleem Khan and Asad Khokhar groups also attended the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, Hamza Shehbaz said that Imran Niazi had lied to the nation and now he as a loser was crying. He said the issue of Tosha Khana had just started and foreign funding had yet to be concluded.

“Your speaker, deputy speaker, president and governor are not guardians of the Constitution but have become your slaves,” he said while addressing Imran Khan. “Postponing the assembly session without a reason is a violation of the Constitution and the law. Opponents seeing their defeat ran away,” Hamza said, adding that their agenda was to create chaos and they completely failed to carry out their nefarious agenda.