Rana snubs PPP for using PA floor for 'personal agenda'

LAHORE Suggesting PPP to level score and protest against rival media group on The Mall, Minister Law Rana Sanaullah has said 'no one will be allowed to damage the sanctity of Punjab Assembly. Speaking at the Assembly floor on Wednesday, he came hard on the PPP legislators for continuously speaking against a specific media group, anchorpersons and a reporter. PPP is damaging sanctity of the house. PPP legislators should not make the house a fish market. They are continuously speaking against persons without answering to their queries. They should answer that who appointed a Dubai night club manager Ayyaz Khan as Chairman National Insurance Corporation, angry but visibly calm Rana Sanaullah questioned. The remarks of Law Minister sparked strong protest from the PPP legislators. Both male and female MPAs stood up from their seats and started shouting against Rana Sanaullah and a specific media group. All efforts of Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal to maintain order and pacify furious PPP legislators failed to yield desired results. PPP members are trying to protect their corruption. They are labelling media men as Indian agents. All are patriotic citizens. No one has the right to criticise them at the assembly floor. If anyone desire to take out rally and chant slogans, should go out of the house and do it on roads, Rana Sanaullah said, adding first they (PPP legislators) stop corruption and then would be allowed to speak on the floor of the house. With the furious PPP legislators refusing to sit down, the PML-N MPAs also stood up and started chanting retaliatory slogans. Earlier, the PPP legislator Azma Zahid Bokhari, on a point of order, reiterated her earlier demand of binding media organisations and reporters to declare their assets. She said the same person who earlier termed Nawaz Sharif as companion of Osama Bin Laden was maligning PPP leadership. Amid continuous sloganeering, Provincial Minister Haji Muhammad Ishaq stood up to make an effort to streamline house proceedings. He said everyone had the right to express his/her views. He said the PPP legislators expressed their views that were their right and policy of the party. He said the Law Minister should have avoided playing with the sentiments of PPP legislators. PPPs Shaukat Mahmood Basra said both PPP and PML-N were coalition partners. He said it was the PML-N that alone brought and passed a resolution against the media at the PA. The PML-N legislators stood up and started shouting. Meanwhile, taking benefit from the call for prayers, the speaker adjourned the proceedings for half an hour. Both the PPP and PML-N legislators left the house while chanting slogans against each other.

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