Parliamentary leaders meeting on NA scuffle ends without decision

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary leaders meeting chaired by the Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq over Thursday’s scuffle in the lower house between government and opposition members ended with some consensus that neither side should be allowed to hurl allegations against the other in the august house.

The meeting, however, ended without appointing blame on who was responsible for Thursday's fiasco.

Ayaz Sadiq, lamenting the chaos which broke out during Thursday’s National Assembly session, requested both the government and opposition members to improve the assembly’s atmosphere and avoid such embarrassing incidents in the future.

“What happened yesterday is regrettable. It was neither good for democracy nor for the sanctity of the parliament,” the Speaker said.

He said it was decided in the meeting that the government and the opposition would not be allowed to hurl allegations against each other.

“If we kept our focus on finding out who initiated the aggression in yesterday’s assembly session, then we would not have been able to take the matter to its logical conclusion,” Sadiq said.

Both the parties were guilty of aggression, he said, adding that another meeting of parliamentary leaders would be held on Monday at 3 PM to discuss a plan of action to avoid such incidents in the future.

The session of the National Assembly on Thursday became a battlefield as a scuffle broke out between the opposition and government lawmakers.

The NA session, under Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, turned chaotic as both the sides started slapping and pushing one another.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Shehryar Afridi earlier went up to the government’s benches and started a scuffle with Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is the current Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources.

During the session, PTI lawmakers led by Shah Mehmood Qureshi started chanting ‘thief, thief’ slogans in the house and stood up on their benches in protest, resulting in an exchange of slogans.