PA session marred by melees: Hamza elected new Punjab CM

LAHORE: Amid a ruckus in the Punjab Assembly, PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz was elected the new chief minister of Punjab on Saturday.

Ahead of the vote, three PTI members of the Punjab Assembly were arrested for attacking Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari.

Hamza bagged 197 votes and his rival Pervez Elahi got just a single vote. Elahi’s party PML-Q and the erstwhile ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had boycotted the elections. However, PTI’s Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan was present in the assembly despite his party’s boycott and voted for Pervez Elahi.

Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari, who was attacked by PTI and PML-Q members earlier in the day, announced the results of the voting and termed the chief minister’s election a victory for democracy. He also praised the MPAs who participated in the voting despite the chaos and violence witnessed inside the Assembly.

The Punjab Assembly session, which was scheduled to begin at 11:30 am, finally began after a delay of more than five hours and saw Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari attacked, while PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi was injured. Once the session got underway, PTI and PML-Q lawmakers staged a walkout, following which the deputy speaker initiated the proceedings for voting on the chief minister’s election.

Prior to the resumption of the session, television footage showed a bandage wrapped around Pervaiz Elahi’s right forearm. Elahi alleged that PML-N MPAs “broke his hand”. “

During his exile, I took care of Hamza Shehbaz but today he showed his reality,” he said. “This is Sharif’s democracy. They have crossed the limits today,” Elahi added. Meanwhile, Elahi blamed the PML-N for bringing the police inside the legislature “for the first time since the creation of assemblies”.

Efforts to get Hamza elected as Punjab CM pick up pace

“Why did police enter the assembly?” the PML-Q leader said. “We will make sure the inspector general of police (IGP) appears before us and is punished for a month.”

He said that under the Constitution, the courts can’t interfere in assembly proceedings. Speaking to the media, he said that the whole issue started when the court intervened in the matter and questioned how it could dictate what could and could not happen during proceedings.

“The powers of the deputy speaker lie with the speaker of the assembly,” he said, adding that the speaker could delegate his powers.

He said he had delegated his powers to the deputy speaker as he was contesting the election for the chief minister of the province. “I stepped down for the sake of free and fair elections. But if the deputy speaker misuses his powers on wrongful backing of the courts, it was going to be challenged.”

He went on to say that when the Lahore High Court gave the order allowing the deputy speaker to conduct the session, they suspended his powers as speaker of the house. “This is illegal,” he said.

He regretted the fact that treasury lawmakers were bribed into changing sides after being promised money and ministries. “They were shifted to three hotels and from there they were brought to the assembly in buses.” Following his father’s injury, Pervez Elahi’s son Moonis Elahi reached the Punjab Assembly.

Earlier, slogans were chanted by both the parties, while PTI members threw lotas at the opposition benches, leading to open altercations and fights on the floor of the house.

When Deputy Speaker Mazari entered the assembly, members of the treasury benches threw lotas at him and tried to surround him, while one of the MPAs pulled his hair and others were seen taking shots at him. Mazari was immediately shifted to his chamber by assembly guards.

To control the situation inside the House, Punjab SSP Operations along with a huge contingent of police officers entered the assembly in civil clothes but later exited the hall after protests by Pervaiz Elahi. Meanwhile, the Punjab Chief Secretary and IG held a meeting inside Mazari’s chamber to chalk out a plan to resume the PA session.

Earlier in the day, Deputy Speaker Mazari had said he would conduct the election in line with the rules as he maintained that if any member of the Punjab Assembly tried to disrupt the session, he would not come under pressure.

In a media talk outside the Punjab Assembly, PML-N leader Attaullah Tarar blamed Parvez Elahi and his “group of gangsters” for everything that happened inside the legislature.

“What happened today was a huge violation of the law and Constitution,” he said. “Today, the deputy speaker was attacked. This is an incident of terrorism. I have heard Chaudhry Parvez Elahi wants to get one or two people murdered.” He added that Elahi had been encouraging the MPAs when they attacked the deputy speaker.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022