The Punjab Assembly session on Monday had to be prorogued after the opposition staged a walk-out and quorum was pointed out.

Through the walk-out, the opposition again registered their protest against the Punjab chief minister for not attending the assembly proceedings and taking the House into confidence on the deaths of 150 patients due to the PIC medicine reaction.

Though law minister Rana Sana tried his best to soften up the violent opposition with claims that the CM would join the House proceedings in the next session and wind up the debate on the PIC issue, the opposition was not ready to show any flexibility on it, not budging an inch from their position i.e. they would not let the house proceedings go smoothly until their demand was met.

With this row between the treasury and the opposition going on, the law minister, the opposition leader and the deputy speaker had a brief chat, after which the opposition leader announced that they would walk out of the House. He said that he would not deliver any speech on drug reaction issue in the absence of the CM and the minister and the secretary of Health. This provided the treasury with an opportunity to have a safe exit.

Immediately after opposition members walked out of the House, Sajida Mir of the PPP started criticizing the treasury. At this point, the deputy speaker asked her if she wanted to point out quorum. Following the directions, she really pointed out quorum and the session was prorogued without any concrete speech and debate from the opposition, and with no windup speech from the treasury on vital drug reaction issue. The only thing the provincial assembly members did was to make noise, exchange abusive language and indulge in political point-scoring on the vital drug reaction issue which has claimed about 150 lives so far.

Interestingly, many treasury members also walked out of the House and no effort was made to meet the quorum. It seemed the script of the drama had already been written. Immediately after the quorum was pointed out, Deputy Speaker Rana Mashud prorogued the House.

It is becoming more and more difficult for the treasury members, particularly law minister Rana Sana, to meet the joint opposition’s growing demand: to bring the chief minister, who is also having the portfolio of Health Minister, in the House. With a smile on his face, the law minister even tolerated the abusive language of the opposition leader. He said he was ready to listen to each word from Raja Riaz but the latter would have to deliver speech, with claims that the CM would wind up the debate in the next session.

However, the law minister had no answer to the opposition’s query: why the CM was not attending the session? The Punjab chief minister has not attended any proceedings of the assembly till the last budget session. The deputy parliamentary leader of PPP in Punjab Assembly, Shaukat Basra, even went to the extent of comparing CM Shahbaz Sharif with former dictator Pervez Musharraf, saying that the military dictator also avoided addressing the joint session of the parliament due to hostile attitude of the opposition. He claimed that the incumbent CM was also following in the footsteps of the dictator.

In no mood to let the proceedings go smoothly, Raja Riaz said that delivering speech on the Health issue before Rana Sana was like casting pearls before swine. He vowed to not deliver speech in the House in the absence of the chief minister. It is more about the prestige of House, not about political point scoring, he added.

The CM would have to clarify as to why he was not coming to the House which had elected him the head of the province, Riaz asserted.

Despite all efforts of Rana Sana, deputy opposition leader Rana Mashud and some senior parliamentarians, like Saeed Akbar Niwani, the opposition did not move an inch forward it stand.

Rana Mashud clarified that the governor had issued notification of proroguing the House on Monday so that they would request the CM to come to the House to wind up debate on the Health issue in the next session. However, Raja Riaz was of the view that he would demand the governor let the proceedings continue and withdrew his notification but the CM would have to come to the House.

Finally, the opposition leader and the law minister had a brief chat with deputy speaker during the house proceedings, following which the opposition leader Raja Riaz announced walking out of the session. With PPP member Sajida Mir pointing out the quorum, the PA session was prorogued, much to the relief of the treasury.