Opponents get physical

A pandemonium was the hallmark of the Punjab Budget 2011-12 in the Punjab Assembly on Friday when the 'chosen people' (legislators) of both benches went in to a scuffle totally forgetting the sanctity of the House. Opposition leader Raja Riaz of PPP created tension in the House when he tried to approach Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif with a garland to welcome him in the House after a lapse of eight months.
His gesture, which was full of sarcasm, did not go well with the treasury benches, in effect, it infuriated them. The situation got ugly when the treasury benchers, Waris Kallu and Zaeem Qadri, resisted Raja's advance to the CM's seat and physically tried to stop him from approaching the CM. Some PML-N MPAs snatched the garland and broken it in anger. This very action created rumpus in the House and led to a scuffle between the members of the two benches. The House gave a look of a battlefield and the CM was smiling during the whole situation.
Many legislators tried to take the advantage of the situation by trying to get physical with their opponents. In one case, in response to Sajida Mir of PPP's attempt to hit a member of the PML-N the treasury bencher Mastikhel picked up a tripod to hit back at her. Luckily, he was restricted by his colleagues otherwise the scene would have gone uglier.
Amid heated arguments, the opposition members snatched a copy of the budget speech from Punjab Finance Minister Kamran Michael and tore it apart. The Minister was stunned by the situation whose speech was interrupted by the Opposition Leader's 'gesture'. During the scuffle between the two benches, speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal tried his best to bring back the order in the House without any success. The Finance Minister had to wait for 15 minutes to restart his speech.