After the Punjab Assembly was on Wednesday sealed off with barbed wires and the building’s main gate was locked, the opposition lawmakers, led by the PML-N, held a session of their own at a private hotel, with PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz claiming that Hamza Shehbaz had been “elected” as the Punjab chief minister.
The legality of the session and Hamza’s subsequent “victory” was unclear as the session was held outside the Punjab Assembly and attended only by opposition lawmakers, while neither Speaker Parvez Elahi nor Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari presided it. Furthermore, no notifications regarding the change of session’s venue or Hamza’s “victory” were issued by the Punjab Assembly secretariat.
The session was instead presided over by PPP MPA Shazia Abid, who told Dawn.com that she was appointed to the panel of chairmen for the 40th session of the Punjab Assembly on April 3. According to the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997, a member of the panel of chairmen can preside over the session in the absence of speaker and the deputy speaker. Her presence on the panel was corroborated by a statement issued by Punjab Assembly Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti on April 2. Panel of Chairmen.– (1) At the commencement of a session, the Speaker shall nominate, in order of precedence, from amongst members a panel of not more than four Chairmen and in the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, the member having precedence amongst those present at the sitting shall take the Chair.
It is pertinent to mention that the joint opposition had held a mock session in the National Assembly on Sunday after the actual session was wrapped up by NA Depute Speaker Qasim Khan Suri.
Source: dawn.com
