The Lower House of Parliament on Friday witnessed rumpus amid heated arguments as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Afzal Khokhar presented a privilege motion against demolition of illegally occupied properties in Lahore.
The National Assembly session started with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair. The debate started as question hour ended after around two hours of proceedings. “Despite I having obtained a stay order from court, the Punjab government launched operation which is not only against human rights but also contempt of the court,” Afzal Khokhar said on the floor of the House. “It was early in the morning when all my family members were sleeping. Suddenly, the government officials barged into our premises and started asking us to immediately leave the area,” he said. In his privilege motion, Khokar requested the House that legal action should be taken against Lahore local administration and the matter should be referred to the relevant standing committee.
Before the speaker’s ruling over the matter, PTI’s Babar Awan responded by saying that the statement by Khokhar was baseless. “First, the operation was carried out in broad daylight, not at night. Second, the stay order which has been pointed out by Khokhar had been vacated by the court long ago,” he told the House.
Awan maintained that this august house is not for the protection of ‘land mafia’, no matter they are parliamentarians or have any other kind of influential portfolio. “Such action can be taken only in this government’s tenure, as no one dared so in the past,” he remarked.
Awan’s remarks perturbed the PML-N lawmakers who started chanting slogans “namanzoor, namanzoor”. Several PML-N members including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Marriyum Aurangzeb left their seats and gathered around the speaker’s dais.
However, Awan continued his speech saying that there are 10 such land grabbing groups in the province which were so much influential that no government could dare to speak or take action against them. “We made it possible,” he said, and requested the speaker to send back the privilege motion for being not maintainable.
The speaker expressed his annoyance over the unruly behaviour of the opposition members. “You people are senior members of this House and you should be aware of its decorum as well,” he said, adding that all affairs will be run as per law. The PML-N members went back to their seats when they were assured by the speaker that their party member would be given enough time to speak.
After almost three hours of proceedings, the speaker announced the adjournment of session till Monday.
Outside the parliament, the tone of PML-N leaders was different to what they had expressed during the proceedings. Talking to media persons outside the parliament building, they stressed more on other matters which were not highlighted by them inside the House.
Accompanied by other party members, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the government is going to introduce a constitutional amendment so that a minister who enjoys dual nationality could be given NRO. He said the masses are facing difficulties and the economy of the country has been destroyed due to incompetence of the government.
Earlier, Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar informed the National Assembly that the PTI government had recovered looted money worth billions of rupees during the last two and half years. He said with the coordination of Assets Recovery Unit (ARU), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the government had recovered the looted money from the corrupt.
