By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: A Punjab Assembly session spiralled into chaos on Monday when an opposition lawmaker slapped a ruling party member, sparking a brawl and forcing a brief adjournment.
The incident, captured on video that quickly spread across social media, marked a new low in an assembly already strained by protests, arrests, and accusations of political vendetta.
The clash unfolded during a session presided over by Acting Speaker Zahid Iqbal Channar, when Khalid Nisar Dogar, an opposition member from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), struck Hassan Riaz, a lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The altercation erupted after an exchange of provocative taunts between the two, escalating into a scuffle on the assembly floor. Lawmakers, including Law Minister Sohaib Bherth, Ashiq Kirmani, and Deputy Opposition Leader Moin Qureshi, rushed to intervene as provincial minister Zeeshan Rafiq also became entangled in what one observer described as a “flurry of slaps.”
Acting Speaker Channar swiftly adjourned the session for five minutes to restore order, though proceedings did not resume for over an hour. “This behavior is highly inappropriate,” Channar said.
He later suspended Dogar for 15 sessions under Rule 210 of the Punjab Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, which empowers the chair to withdraw members or halt sittings for disruptive conduct. The session was ultimately adjourned until 2 p.m. Tuesday, with Channar summoning both government and opposition lawmakers to his chambers for talks.
Government lawmakers denounced the opposition’s actions as “undemocratic” and “unacceptable.” “We can tolerate slogans, but physical assault is intolerable,” one member said, pressing for disciplinary measures.
Riaz, speaking to reporters afterward, called it “a dark day” for the assembly. “I was addressing the speaker, but an opposition lawmaker was hurling insults at me,” he said. “When I saw him, he came and attacked me. These people have no control over themselves; they’ve been the same since May 9.”
The violence spilled beyond the chamber when a second brawl broke out in the assembly’s press hall. Staff members of a government MPA reportedly insulted opposition lawmakers, prompting a heated response from PTI members Sardar Mohammad Ali Khan and Muhammad Ejaz Shafi. “They insulted our MPA,” Khan told reporters, pointing to two unidentified individuals he accused of abusing an “honourable member” before fleeing. “If you do not raise your voices, this will happen to you too.”
Security personnel intervened to separate the groups, but the opposition demanded a ban on the accused staff, alleging they acted on behalf of treasury members.
Monday’s chaos follows a pattern of unrest in the Punjab Assembly. Just two weeks earlier, speaker had reinstated 26 suspended opposition members, mostly from PTI, saying their return would “send a positive message.”
The lawmakers had been barred on June 27 after disrupting a speech by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, surrounding the speaker’s dais, raising slogans, and damaging public property. Speaker Malik Ahmed Khan suspended them for 15 sittings, fined 10 MPAs Rs200,000 each, and filed disqualification references with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over their “unparliamentary conduct.” After negotiations, however, the disqualification bids were dropped.
In June, Malik suspended the same 26 opposition MPAs for 15 sittings after they protested during Nawaz’s budget presentation, tearing agenda papers and hurling “offensive, abusive, and unparliamentary language” toward the treasury benches. Monday’s events suggest that the reinstatement, intended to ease tensions, has failed to bridge the rift between the PML-N and PTI.
The session’s volatility was compounded by outrage over the arrest of Opposition Leader Ahmad Khan Bhachar, convicted in a case tied to the May 9, 2023, riots. Opposition members, including Tayyab Rashid, decried the arrest as a “violation of law and an attack on democracy,” accusing the government of punishing Bhachar for “exposing corruption.”
The PTI staged walkouts, chanting anti-government slogans and demanding the release of both Bhachar and their party’s founder. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman pushed back, insisting Bhachar’s conviction was a judicial ruling, not a political move. “This is a court decision, not a vendetta,” he said.
Law Minister Sohaib Bherth, meanwhile, expressed regret over an earlier incident in the session when PTI’s Rana Shahbaz brandished a copy of the Holy Quran while decrying “false” terrorism charges against him. Channar rebuked Shahbaz, and Bherth urged dialogue to resolve such disputes. The opposition walked out a second time after Channar suspended another PTI member, Sheikh Imtiaz, for pointing out a lack of quorum during proceedings.
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