Minister comes hard on opposition for violating Assembly’s decorum

LAHORE: Punjab Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has castigated the opposition benches in the Punjab Assembly, saying in the past five months, the opposition has continuously dishonoured the sanctity of the parliament by violating the Assembly’s decorum and rules.

“In contrast, Speaker Malik Ahmed showed wisdom and patience, ensuring the opposition was involved and given ample space, establishing a good precedent. The Speaker continued to give the opposition opportunities to speak and the gallery can attest that the opposition often displayed disrespectful behaviour towards the Speaker as well while the treasury members were not allowed to speak in the Assembly,” he said while addressing a press conference here on Thursday.

“As the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, I received numerous complaints from MPAs that the Speaker gave more time to the opposition. We endured this situation patiently for five months. After five months, the restrictions imposed on the opposition members were in accordance with the Assembly rules. If the opposition believes that they can better register their protest by sitting outside the Assembly, they are welcome to do so, but they should not create problems for passers-by. What happened to Tahir Anjum yesterday is strongly condemnable,” he said.

He averred that Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, in her maiden speech in the Punjab Assembly, declared her intention to work collaboratively with the opposition. “After her speech, she approached the opposition leader, assuring him that constructive criticism would be heeded, but criticism for the sake of criticism would be futile. However, the opposition disregarded this positive approach and fostered a culture of uproar and abusive language in the House,” he added.

According to him, in the past, it was customary for all members to listen to the Chief Minister’s speech attentively. During the PTI era, even though Usman Buzdar was not an eloquent speaker, they listened to him. However, when Maryam Nawaz spoke, the opposition refused to listen. During Maryam Nawaz’s tenure, Punjab witnessed record development work, introducing more projects in five months than PTI did in its entire tenure. This was intolerable for the opposition.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024