LAHORE: Punjab Assembly (PA) Speaker Rana Iqbal has suggested that National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza constitute a ‘National Commission’ against the National Assembly commission on the issue of establishment of new provinces while avoiding nominating members from the provincial assembly for the NA commission.
PA Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan informed the legislators about this latest development during the PA session on Monday.The assembly session on Monday started at least three hours late from its scheduled time because of a long debate on the said issue in the Advisory Committee meeting that was held before the session.Soon after recitation from the holy Quran, Pakistan People’s Party-(PPP) backed Opposition Leader in the House Raja Riaz stood up on a point of order and raised the issue of a separate province of Southern Punjab and alleged that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was not sincere towards the wishes of Saraiki people.
He informed the House that his party had already nominated Shah Rukh Malik and given his name to PA Speaker Rana Iqbal for the National Assembly Commission on new provinces, however, the PML-N government had not given any name from its side. Also, the speaker had not replied to a letter from NA speaker asking for names of PA members for the commission, he added.To counter Raja Riaz’s allegation, the treasury members raised a hue and cry in the assembly, thus, forcibly stopping him from continuing.
Upon this, Raja Riaz urged PML-N members from Southern Punjab to stand on their benches if they were in favour of a separate province, however, nobody stood up at his call.Meanwhile, PPP’s deputy parliamentary leader in the House Shaukat Basra said that the “government had challenged the opposition during the advisory committee meeting, saying it would not work for formation of a separate province”.He urged the Speaker to provide two names for the commission – one from treasury and second from the opposition – and threatened to halt all House business until the demand was met. Basra went on to say that the speaker could now only run the House business “over their dead bodies”.
In retaliation, the treasury members stood up on their benches and started sloganeering against the PPP leadership.When the speaker did not stop the treasury members from sloganeering, the opposition members led by Raja Riaz, Shaukat Basra, Ahsanul Haq Naulatia, Rai Shahjahan and Hasan Murtaza surrounded the speakers’ dice and started chanted slogans for a separate province.Chanting from both the sides continued for about half an hour, after which the speaker announced break for Maghrib prayer.
The opposition continued protest on issue of separate province after the session restarted. Upon this, the speaker informed that he had sent a reply to NA speaker’s letter, asking her to constitute a ‘National Commission’ rather than the existing National Assembly Commission for separate province. He strictly told the opposition to not force him over the issue, as this was a matter between speakers of both the assemblies.
Expressing their support for the speaker, treasury members Tahir Sindhu and Zaeem Qadri said that according to the rules of PA procedure, the opposition could not force the speaker to nominate members as it was his (speaker) prerogative.However, Zaeem said that the NA speaker had exhibited dishonesty on the issue by constituting a commission when the assembly had already passed a unanimous resolution in favour of new provinces. At this point, Basra pointed out the quorum and the speaker adjourned the session for Tuesday (today).
