LAHORE, June 6: PML-N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif on Friday took oath as a Punjab Assembly member amid noisy protest by the opposition against the speaker’s failure to notify the leader of opposition.

Within minutes of his oath-taking, the spirited opposition remarked that the two-month-old house was going to have the second chief minister in the next two days, but the speaker was delaying notification of their leader for unexplained reasons.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal, whose inexperience in handling the house was evident throughout the day’s proceedings, defended his position by saying that “rules allow him to notify the opposition leader only when, in his opinion, someone commands majority of the opposition members.”

But he failed to answer the opposition query that who in his opinion commands majority of the opposition benches if not PML-Q-nominated Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan. The speaker kept insisting on his ‘legally valid but morally feeble’ excuse that he would notify only when he is convinced that Mr Zaheer has the backing of the majority.

Raja Riaz of the PPP tried to prove that two wrongs make one right when he, in defence of the speaker’s position, claimed that the PML-Q too delayed the notification of the opposition leader for years when it was in the government. “Why is it now in a hurry to get its leader notified?” he asked.

The next embarrassing moment for the treasury came when two of its members moved privilege motions and the opposition pointed out that there was no Privilege Committee of the house because the opposition leader had not been nominated. A committee couldn’t be formed without nominating members from opposition by its leader, it argued.

The presence of Shahbaz Sharif had somewhat energised the house as everybody from the treasury bench tried to either congratulate one another or eulogise his (Shahbaz’s) sagacity and ability to solve the people’s problems. But as soon as Mr Sharif left the house after 55 minutes of proceedings, the treasury lost interest in the proceedings and most of its members left one by one.

At one stage their count came down to 50, allowing the opposition to point out incomplete quorum and leave the house. The speaker ordered ringing of bells for five minutes and sent the treasury scrambling for its members who were sitting in the cafeteria. After five minutes, the treasury managed the required numbers and the listless house ran through the rest of the business for the day.

Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan also took the occasion to remind the speaker that he was not providing the opposition even the clerical staff to facilitate them in conducting routine business. “The opposition has completely been marginalised in every sense of the word,” he said.

It was not being allowed speak in the house and not being provided the required staff for its offices within the assembly. The opposition, which wanted to cooperate with the treasury for strengthening democracy, was being driven to the wall, he complained, adding: “This is not a healthy sign for the house and democracy.”

The speaker, he said, had the right to accept or reject the opposition’s point of view but he should not disallow them to speak.