LAHORE - Five legislators belonging to Mandi Bahauddin on Friday staged a walk out from the Punjab Assembly and also threatened to launch civil disobedience movement in their district if the Punjab government did not release the development funds allegedly withheld by it after the PPP ministers pulled out of the provincial cabinet. Asif Bashir Bhagat, Maj (r) Zulfiqar Gondal, Tariq Mahmood Allona, Wasim Afzal Gondal and Tariq Mahmood Sahi - all belonging to the PPP - left the House to register their protest over the issue. They vowed to continue their boycott of the assembly proceedings till the chief minister gave them an assurance about resumption of work on different development projects in their area. Speaking on a point of order, PPPs Asif Bashir Bhagat told the House that the Punjab government had capped all development projects in his district immediately after the PPP ministers were shown the door by the PML-N. He was holding some official documents in his hands and showed them to the Speaker to prove his point that government had made zero allocation in current years budget for two important projects - Sargodha-Gujrat dual carriage way (passing through Mandi Bahauddin) and construction of District Headquarters Hospital in the district. Asif also alleged that some schools were without roofs as construction work had been halted. He threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement in the district if the capped development projects wee not revived. He said people of Mandi Bahauddin had the right on development funds because they also paid taxes like the residents of other districts. Responding to the point of order, the law minister said that Assembly members could not claim development funds as their prerogative. It is, however, a practice that they are asked to identify development schemes in their respective districts, he said, adding the Punjab government had diverted some funds last year to flood affected areas and it was quite possible that the said projects might have been halted because of this decision. In the meantime, Opposition Leader Raja Riaz intervened and said the people of Mandi Bahauddin were being punished through suspension of development work in their areas because they voted for PPP candidates in the last election. He held the Punjab CM responsible for what he called the discriminatory treatment being meted out to PPP legislators. He said the CM had told him that he had instructed Senior Advisor Zulfikar Khosa to hold a meeting with the PPP legislators to resolve the issue of development funds, but Khosa was not available despite lapse of one month. Later, Major (R) Zulfiqar Gondal also joined his colleagues and said the PPP legislators would not succumb to any pressure tactics from the Punjab government and would continue to raise their voice on all forums. We should be allowed to seek affiliation of our district with the province of Sindh, he asked the Chair while citing the example of Jonagath, an Indian state which had desired to be part of Pakistan at the time of independence. After the PPP lawmakers left the House in protest, Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah assured the House that he would arrange a meeting of the PPP parliamentarians with Sardar Zulfikar Ali Khosa within couple of days to sort out the issue. He also realised the importance of mentioned projects and agreed that they should be completed on time. The Speaker, Rana Muhammad Iqbal, also instructed the law minister that the matter should be resolved positively. After assuring the House that grievance of the PPP legislators in this regard would be removed, the law minister complained that he could not get an unwanted electric pole removed along a road in his constituency because the department concerned belonged to the federal government. Separately, PPPs Sajida Mir also raised the issue of development funds for PPPs lady legislators, which, she said, had been stopped after end of the coalition with the PML-N in Punjab.