Summary Dunya News reporter said it was government members' turn to respond to the allegations
LAHORE: (Dunya News) – Parliament saw some serious infighting today as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members refused to listen to Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique’s speech and staged a walkout from the assembly when the speaker didn’t allow PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi to speak ahead of the government member, reported Dunya News.
According to the tradition, it was government members’ turn to speak. Senior Dunya News reporter Shakir Solangi said that the tradition is that if allegations are made from the Opposition side, the government benches are given the time to respond to the allegations. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq also did the same after Opposition Leader Syed Khurshid Shah’s speech against Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif today but PTI members staged protest upon this, tore apart the copies of the agenda and staged a walkout from the parliament.
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Shakir Solangi said that Speaker continued ensuring the PTI members that Shah Mehmood would be given time to speak after Saad Rafique’s speech but the opposition party felt that Ayaz Sadiq had wronged them by not allowing to speak ahead of the government member.
The reporter told that Saad Rafique had later discussed the situation with Shah Mehmood Qureshi and they seemed to be coming to an agreement. However, the session was called off for the day and it will be resumed from the same point tomorrow.
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Saad Rafique later responded to Khurshid Shah’s allegations before the media outside National Assembly. He said that Khurshid Shah’s allegations were baseless and the issue was already before the court to decide and thus did not merit discussion in the parliament.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi also spoke to media afterwards and stated that PTI considered speaker’s decision undemocratic. He said that the speaker had proven through this act that he wasn’t neutral and sided with the government. He added that the session would be resumed on Thursday from where it was left today and he’d make his speech tomorrow.
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