LAHORE, June 16: Five years ago in June 2003, the PPP and the PML-N, now partners in ruling coalition, were boycotting, as joint opposition, the first budget of the then ruling party, PML-Q. But in 2008, there is reversal of positions.

The cause the then opposition was claiming to be championing was “national” one — protesting against the Legal Framework Order (better known as LFO). But five years on, the present opposition is offering a “localised” cause, failure of speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan to notify opposition leader in the house.

Another difference between the old and the new oppositions is that the former had a clear target to hit upon — a uniformed president, and would sing in chorus and with passion “No Musharraf No” and “Go Musharraf Go”. But, the latter so far lacks any target or issue to rally around and draw attention of the masses. Therefore, its make-shift protest camp, named by it as the ‘opposition chamber’, set up outside the assembly building was presenting a calm and peaceful environ.

PML-Q leaders Hamid Nasir Chathha, the former National Assembly speaker, and Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, a former provincial minister, said at the camp that the house was incomplete without them (the opposition) and that the speaker, by not notifying the opposition leader, was trampling on the tradition according to which the discussion on budget is opened by the opposition leader.

They claim it will be for the first time in the parliamentary history of the Punjab Assembly that the budget discussion will be opened by a member other than the opposition leader when the house meets after a two-day break here on Thursday.

But, according to an official of the assembly secretariat, the Q-Leaguers perhaps forgot that the discussion on 2003-04 budget had also been opened by someone else who was not even an opposition member. That was the first time when the tradition was violated, the official added.

The Punjab law and parliamentary affairs minister, who ordered that the protesting MPAs be served food and drinks at their camp, recalled that they as opposition members had been protesting on the assembly’s staircase under the sun while the present opposition was agitating under shade having the facility of air-coolers.

When proceedings of the house started an hour late than its scheduled time of 11am, Rana Sanaullah drew the chair’s attention towards opposition’s boycott.

Speaker Rana Iqbal criticised the opposition for what he said trying to dictate him on the issue of the opposition leader.

The speaker, in the previous sessions, had been questioning the authenticity of the protesters’ claim to leadership of the opposition in the house, a line taken by the former National Assembly speaker Chaudhry Amir Husain for nominating MMA’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman as opposition leader in the lower house.

On the insistence of the minister, the chair set up a three-member committee comprising senior minister Raja Riaz, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor and Sagheera Islam to bring the boycotters back to the house, giving the team maximum 10 minute time for completing the task, so that the budget speech could be delivered in the presence of the opposition.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif urged the chair to use its discretionary powers for settling the issue.

Raja Riaz, after visiting the opposition camp, reported back that he had requested the boycotters to return to the house and prove their majority and the speaker would immediately notify the opposition leader, but they did not accept it.

On a query by the chair, the senior minister said there were just 20 MPAs sitting at the protest camp.