The Punjab assembly session on Monday was thrown into chaos when two fights broke out among the legislators, which led to the suspension of a member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA), according to a Dawn.com correspondent present in the scene.
Today early, the opposition member Khalid Nisar Dogar hit Hasan Riaz de PML-N during the session, before the two were separated by other legislators. The images of the incident have become viral since then.
The interim speaker Zaheer Iqbal Channar described the altercation as “highly inappropriate.”
According to the correspondent, the session was postponed until 2 pm on Tuesday by Channar, who summoned the Government’s MPA and the opposition to their cameras. He suspended to give for 15 sessions under rule 210 (power to order the withdrawal of the members or suspend the session) of the procedure rules of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab, 1997.
Speaking to journalists after the failures, Riaz called him “a dark day.”
“I was heading to the speaker, but an opposition legislator was throwing me insults,” he said. “When I saw him, he came and attacked me. These people have no control over them; they have been the same since May 9 [riots in 2023]. “
According to the reports, another altercation broke out in the press room of the Assembly, where the members of the GPA staff threw insults to the opposition legislators.
As a result, the opposition Mpas Sardar Mohammad Ali Khan and Muhammad Ejaz Shafi also threw abuse since both parties became face to face. However, the security personnel arrived in the press room and separated both groups of legislators.
The video images recorded in the press room show Khan and Shafi claiming that two people came and threw abuses to their fellow legislators before leaving the press room.
“They insulted our MPA,” Khan emphasized. “You all witnessed that two criminals abused an honorable member. If you do not raise your voices, this will also happen.”
This is not the first time that rebel behavior is seen in the Punjab Assembly.
In June, the president of the Punjab Assembly, Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, ordered the suspension of 26 MPa of opposition for 15 sessions after his protests interrupted the procedures when Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif was presenting the budget.
According to an order issued by Malik on June 27, the MPA suspended “became disorderly, beyond all parliamentary reasoning and practices,” including the tear of the agenda’s papers and throwing torn pieces towards the treasure banks, as well as the use of “offensive, abusive and increase.”
The order was issued under rule 210 of the Rules of Procedure of the Punjab Assembly, 1997.
