Negotiation Committees Formed for Punjab MPAs Disqualification Reference

A collage showing Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan and opposition members protesting during a session. — Screengrab via Geo News

LAHORE: Punjab government and the opposition have formed their respective negotiation committees to hold dialogue over the issue of speaker's disqualification reference against the latter's members in the Punjab Assembly, the sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

With the second session of the negotiation committees set to take place on Sunday (tomorrow), the talks, if successful, might lead to Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan dropping the disqualification reference.

The government side will be led by Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman and would comprise Salman Rafique, Rana Arshad, Samiullah, Ahmed Iqbal, Ali Haider Gilani, Shafay Hussain and Shoaib Siddiqui. Meanwhile, the opposition committee would include Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar, Ali Imtiaz, Sheikh Imtiaz and Ejaz Shafi.

Last week, the speaker had filed the disqualification reference with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against 26 MPAs over ruckus, sloganeering, shouting and tearing of documents in the house during the budget session.

The reference filed against PTI-backed MPAs includes Malik Farhad Masood, Muhammad Tanveer Aslam, Syed Riffat Mehmood, Yasir Mehmood Qureshi, Kaleem Ullah Khan, Muhammad Ansar Iqbal, Ali Asif, Zulfiqar Ali, Ahmad Mujtaba Chaudhary, Shahid Javed, Muhammad Ismael, Khayal Ahmad.

Shahbaz Ahmad, Tayyab Rashid, Imtiaz Mehmood, Ali Imtiaz, Rashid Tufail, Muhammad Murtaza Iqbal, Khalid Zubair Nisar, Ch Muhammad Ejaz Shafi, Saima Kanwal, Muhammad Naeem, Sajjad Ahmed, Rana, Aourang Zaib, Shuaib Ameer and Usama Asghar Ali Gujjar.

Separately, 10 opposition lawmakers had been fined more than Rs2 million for acts of vandalism such as breaking microphones as per the relevant video evidence.

Those fined include Chaudhary Javed Kausar, Asad Abbas, Tanveer Aslam, Riffat Mehmood, Muhammad Ismael, Shahbaz Ahmad, Imtiaz Mehmood, Khalid Zubair, Rana Aourang Zaib and Muhammad Ahsan Ali — all of whom will have to pay Rs203,550 each.