ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly secretariat has asked PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to tender an apology over his remarks against Speaker Asad Qaiser.
The secretariat has sent a letter asking him to apologize within seven days for violating parliamentary procedures after he threatened to hit the speaker with a shoe.
The notice said the speaker has taken “very serious note of your continuous misbehaviour and disregard of Chair and accepted parliamentary norms and especially on the occasion when a very important business was about to transact before the House on 20th April 2021”.
The National Assembly had convened a session to present a resolution whether the French ambassador to Pakistan should be expelled over blasphemy caricatures.
During the session, Abbasi had a heated exchange with the speaker when he approached the rostrum with the PML-N leader saying: “I will take off my shoe and hit you.”
The notice sent to Abbasi said that the speaker believes that his authority was “eroded/disregarded” and smooth running of parliament proceedings were “obstructed”. “By your such act you have interrupted and obstructed the business of the National Assembly and ridiculed the Chair,” read the notice.
It said that Abbasi is required to tender an apology and explain within seven days why action should not be taken against him under Rule 21 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007.
Rule 21 empowers the speaker to suspend the membership of a lawmaker for the rest of the National Assembly session. The notice to Abbasi warned that if his reply is not received within the stipulated time, “it will be presumed that you have no explanation to offer”.
Later while speaking to a private channel, Abbasi said he should not have behaved the way he did but said the speaker wanted to “bulldoze” the resolution without giving him a chance to speak.
