LAHORE: Police launched an operation inside the Punjab Assembly on Saturday and arrested five MPAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari wrote a letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
Chaos ensued in Punjab Assembly after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) lawmakers threw “lotas” at Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari as he arrived to chair the session for the election of the Chief Minister.
The PTI lawmakers set off a ruckus in the Assembly as they brought “lotas” to the House and started chanting “lota, lota (turncoats)”, lashing out at dissident PTI members, who parted ways with the party and decided to support the Opposition.
The lawmakers of the ruling party also threw “lotas” at Mazari and then attacked him despite the presence of security guards. Mazari was also slapped by PTI members, following which, he was escorted by Sergeant-At-Arms.
The session was scheduled to start at 11:30 am, but despite the passage of more than six hours, it has not yet started as government lawmakers — PTI and PML-Q — resorted to violence.
Deputy Speaker Mazari, in a statement, said the election would take place at any cost and that he would return to the assembly’s building later.
“I will fulfill my constitutional and legal duty, the attack against me was orchestrated, it was not abrupt,” the deputy speaker said.
He also lashed out at Pervaiz Elahi and said: “This is not Gujrat where you can do whatever you want. This is the Punjab Assembly and here, we follow the constitution and law.”
Talking to foreign media, PA Speaker Elahi — in an apparent reference to the LHC’s decision — said under Article 69 of the Constitution, the courts are not allowed to intervene in the Parliament’s affairs. “Courts cannot decide what will happen in the Parliament.”
Elahi said he had given additional powers to the deputy speaker as he was contesting for the chief minister’s slot, but when Mazari “misused” the powers, he withdrew them but the LHC restored those powers.
He said since Pakistan’s inception, police have not entered any assembly and termed their interference as unconstitutional.
