Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan has ordered the suspension of 26 opposition MPAs for 15 sittings of the provincial legislature after their protests disrupted the proceedings, it emerged on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The members raised slogans and protested during Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz\u2019s speech in the assembly yesterday, when she responded to PTI leadership\u2019s comments that ex-premier Nawaz Sharif \u2014 also an MNA \u2014 had been removed from the political arena.<\/p>\n
According to an order issued by Malik on Friday, the suspended MPAs \u201cbecame disorderly, beyond all parliamentary reasoning and practices\u201d, including tearing the agenda papers and hurling torn pieces towards the treasury benches as well as using \u201coffensive, abusive, and unparliamentary language and slogans\u201d.<\/p>\n
The order was issued under Rule 210 of the Punjab Assembly Rules of Procedure 1997 (power to order withdrawal or suspension of member) and stated that the 26 MPAs violated four provisions of Rule 223.<\/p>\n
These were (c) (shall not interrupt any member while speaking by disorderly expression or noises or in any other disorderly manner), (f) (shall maintain silence when not speaking in the assembly), (h) (shall not chant slogans, display banners or placards, throw and tear table documents and reports, etc), and (i) (shall not indulge in rowdy behaviour).<\/p>\n
The MPAs also allegedly manhandled the treasury members, blocking their way as they tried to approach the treasury benches with \u201cthreatening gestures\u201d.<\/p>\n
Malik, in his order, said he repeatedly tried to call the assembly to order, but the opposition \u201cdeclined to act in accordance with the Rules and persisted with misconduct and disorder and kept challenging my orders and authority\u201d.<\/p>\n
The speaker concluded that the opposition MPAs had \u201cdisregarded [his] authority as speaker [\u2026] consistently and willfully obstructing the business of the assembly\u201d.<\/p>\n
Out of the 26 MPAs suspended, 17 were listed as belonging to the Sunni Ittehad Council, which PTI-affiliated candidates joined last year after their party was deprived of its election symbol. At least eight others, however, were stated as PTI MPAs.<\/p>\n
The following 26 lawmakers were suspended:<\/p>\n
Ali Asif (PP-75) \u2014 SIC
\nAli Imtiaz (PP-156) \u2014 SIC
\nAhmad Mujtaba Chaudhary (PP-99) \u2014 SIC
\nChaudhry Muhammad Ejaz Shafi (PP-258) \u2014 SIC
\nImtiaz Mehmood (PP-155) \u2014 SIC
\nKaleemullah Khan (PP-60) \u2014 SIC
\nKhayal Ahmad (PP-118) \u2014 PTI
\nKhalid Zubair Nisar (PP-231) \u2014 PTI
\nMalik Fahad Masood (PP-13) \u2014 SIC
\nMuhammad Ansar Iqbal (PP-73) \u2014 SIC
\nMuhammad Ismael (PP-116) \u2014 PTI
\nMuhammad Naeem (PP-263) \u2014 SIC
\nMuhammad Tanveer Aslam (PP-19) \u2014 SIC
\nRai Muhammad Murtaza Iqbal (PP-203) \u2014 PTI
\nRana Aurangzaib (PP-276) \u2014 PTI
\nRashid Tufail (PP-175) \u2014 SIC
\nSaima Kanwal (PP-260) \u2014 SIC
\nSajjad Ahmad (PP-265) \u2014 PTI
\nShahbaz Ahmad (PP-130)
\nShahid Javed (PP-115) \u2014 PTI
\nLt. Col (retired) Shuaib Ameer (PP-281) \u2014 SIC
\nSyed Riffat Mehmood (PP-24) \u2014 SIC
\nTayyab Rashid (PP-141) \u2014 SIC
\nUsama Asghar Ali Gujjar (PP-282) \u2014 PTI
\nYasir Mehmood Qureshi (PP-25) \u2014 SIC
\nZulfiqar Ali (PP-76) \u2014 SIC
\n10 MPAs fined for \u2018vandalism\u2019
\nSeparately, the Punjab Assembly secretary general has also fined 10 MPAs Rs203,550 each for allegedly damaging public property during the June 16 session, according to a letter issued today.<\/p>\n
According to Malik, opposition members had tried to interrupt the budget speech by Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman. He claimed SIC\u2019s Hassan Malik had hit the minister with the budget book repeatedly, causing the Rehman to stop his address.<\/p>\n
The letter by Chaudhry Amer Habib to the 10 lawmakers stated that the fine was being imposed on account of damages, as eight microphones were broken after the named individuals climbed upon the desks. It also cited a video recording of the incident.<\/p>\n
The statement added that if the payment was not made within seven days, action would be taken under the Punjab Government Dues Recovery Ordinance 1962.<\/p>\n
The 10 MPAs included six who have been suspended over yesterday\u2019s session \u2014 SIC\u2019s Tanveer Aslam, Imtiaz Mahmood and Riffat, along with PTI\u2019s Nisar, Ismael and Aurangzaib.<\/p>\n
Others were Shahbaz Ahmed, PTI\u2019s Chaudhry Javed Kausar and Mohammad Ahsan Ali, and Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen\u2019s Asad Abbas.<\/p>\n
The MPAs, the letter said, had violated Rule 223 (r), which states that a lawmaker \u201cshall not break or harm any furniture, equipment or device installed in the chamber\u201d.<\/p>\n
Malik directed the recovery of the damage under Rule 235 (residuary powers of the speaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan has ordered the suspension of 26 opposition MPAs for 15 sittings of the provincial legislature after their protests disrupted the proceedings, it emerged on Saturday. The members raised slogans and protested during Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz\u2019s speech in the assembly yesterday, when she responded to PTI leadership\u2019s comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10469,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10467\/revisions\/10469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}