LAHORE: Before Chief Minister Parvez Elahi was able to win the confidence of 186 members during a session that began on Wednesday and ended in the early hours of Thursday, extraordinary events took place at the Punjab Assembly.
During the unprecedented session, which was marred by a raucous protest by the opposition, lawmakers broke furniture out of frustration and yelled slogans to anger their opponents.
CM Elahi thanked his own party, Imran Khan and the PTI, his provincial cabinet, and other lawmakers who assisted him in passing the line after taking the confidence vote.
Two PTI MPAs, Amer Chandia from Rahim Yar Khan and Ammar Yasir from Chakwal, were transported to Lahore late on Wednesday night, allowing the ruling coalition to somehow touch the magical number of 186, despite Rana Sanauallah’s earlier claim that travel records indicated that at least seven PTI MPAs were abroad.
The opposition boycotted the voting process, claiming that the speaker denied them permission to appoint polling agents for a “fair count” of those who were voting for Mr. Elahi. Since the proceedings began at 5 p.m., the opposition had been causing a stir in the house and demanding that the chief minister conduct a trust vote in accordance with the governor’s directive from December 19.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, who was in the gallery during the proceedings but spoke to reporters outside the assembly in the early hours of Thursday, stated that the treasury had maintained that the governor’s order was illegal and had challenged it in court.
He asked, referring to the late-night vote of confidence, “Then how could they do this, after relaxing all the rules?”
The opposition remained in the house, which remained in session until midnight with two breaks – one for Maghrib prayers that lasted for more than an hour during which the PTI chairman addressed the ruling coalition’s parliamentary party through a video link – and the other at 10 pm for a half-hour as dinner break – despite verbal assurances to the contrary by Speaker Sibtain Khan. The opposition had suspicions that CM Elahi would attempt to take a trust vote by “manipulating”.
The second break came to an end just before 12 a.m., when Deputy Speaker Wasiq Qayyum resumed the meeting and announced that it would be postponed until 12:05 a.m. in order to meet the legal requirement of calling a new setting for the new day (Jan. 12) and publishing a new agenda.
At 1:20 in the morning, serious business was resumed, and the chief minister himself was present.
The opposition resorted to chanting “dakoo” slogans as soon as CM Elahi entered the house. To maintain the house’s order, the speaker had already summoned additional police officers.
Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, a CCPO from Capital City, arrived at the assembly building to oversee the security measures.
Mian Aslam Iqbal and Raja Basharat, provincial ministers, introduced a resolution to restore confidence in CM Elahi to begin the trust vote process.
Despite protests by the opposition, which claimed that assembly secretary Inayatullah Lak manipulated the number of people who supported and those who opposed the resolution, the motion was approved by a majority vote.
After that, Speaker Sibtain Khan gave the order to ring the bells in the lobby for five minutes so that all of the MPAs could get to the assembly hall, whose doors had been locked in accordance with the rules.
After that, the speaker told those who wanted to vote for Mr. Elahi to exit the room through the “Ayes” door.
On a point of order, PML-N MPA Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said that the chair was breaking the rules by not giving members and the press gallery copies of the new agenda.
He also objected to the fact that the speaker had not appointed polling agents from the Treasury and the Opposition to accurately count the MPAs who were in favor of Mr. Elahi as CM and entered the “Ayes” gate.
Since the opposition did not agree with the speaker, they started shouting slogans against the government and Parvez Elahi, tore up copies of the agenda, and threw chairs at Sibtain Khan’s dais, which was guarded by treasury members.
The opposition then refused to participate in the procedure and left the building.
Before trust vote
Earlier in the day, the chair called a halt to the Question Hour, prompting each opposition mover to call his question number 186—a reference to the minimum support the CM needed in the trust vote to continue ruling the province—and inquire as to why the speaker was not asking Mr. Elahi to abide by the Constitution by requesting a vote of confidence in accordance with the governor’s directive from December 19.
The speaker warned some opposition MPAs that by criticizing the trust vote case-seized Lahore High Court, they were becoming guilty of contempt of court.
Minister Shahabuddin Sehar was annoyed by the constant chaos in the house and suggested that Speaker Sibtain Khan should remove the rowdy opposition lawmakers from the house because they were preventing the assembly from working.
As the opposition members’ protest over the trust vote had been registered and they had demonstrated their “performance” to senior leadership, the chair repeatedly urged them to remain calm and take their seats.
Source: Dawn News