LAHORE                  -            The Opposition staged a walkout from the Punjab Assembly on Thursday after pointing quorum to protest against suspension of PML-N’s Kh Imran Nazir, leading to adjournment of session.

The PA witnessed complete chaos as infuriated Opposition legislators stood up, tore apart copies of agenda and resorted to sloganeering to protest against reply of the minister to the question of outbreak of polio in a polio-free province. The session started one hour and 40 minutes behind the scheduled time with Member Panel of Chairman Mian Shafi Muhammad in the chair.

During question hour on primary and secondary healthcare department, the opposition criticized the government for resurgence of wild polio virus outbreak in the province.

PML-N’s Kh Salman Rafiq and Rabia Naseem Farooqi blamed government for the spread of crippling virus and demanded an explanation. “Why the polio cases resurfaced in Punjab when it had become polio-free in 2018,” questioned the opposition legislators.

Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid explained that Punjab was never polio-free. “There is a difference between non appearance of cases and presence of polio virus in sewerage,” she said, adding that polio virus was never eliminated from Punjab.

The answer infuriated the opposition legislators. Rabia Farooqui said she would not put the next supplementary question till getting satisfactory reply on the outbreak of polio virus. The Opposition legislators stood up, tore apart copies of agenda and started chanting slogans against the government. They demanded removal of Health Minister over failure to contain spread of polio virus.

As Law Minister Raja Basharat stood up to pacify the opposition, PML-N’s Kh Imran Nazir passed indecent remarks. Raja Basharat and Minister for Prosecution Ch Zaheer-ud-Din demanded the chair to stop issuing production orders of those, who misused the privilege and disrupted the discipline and proceedings of the House.

The chair suspended Kh Imran Nazir from attending the current session for passing un-parliamentary comments.

As the opposition staged a walkout against the decision of the chair, PML-N’s Zaib-un-Nisa Awan pointed quorum.

As the quorum remained incomplete even after ringing bells for five minutes, the chair adjourned the session for 20 minutes. As required number of members could not turn up after the break, the chair adjourned the session till Friday (today) at 9 am.