DAWN.COM

MUZAFFARABAD, April 25: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) twice staged a token walkout from the AJK Legislative Assembly here on Wednesday against the behaviour of its speaker.

First, it was the issue of Yasin Gulshan who said his privilege had been breached by the law ministry by obstructing confirmation of his bail in “politically motivated cases.”

He alleged that the ministry had changed three counsel to represent the prosecution in three days with malafide intention to perpetuate his detention.

Denying allegations, Law Minister Azhar Gilani said the government had dealt the matter without any prejudice and the speaker did not allow him to move the privilege motion. On this, the angry assembly member tore apart copy of the agenda prompting his colleagues to stage a walkout.

They returned to the house shortly afterwards but once again had an argument with the speaker after he refused to allow a calling attention notice to Raja Farooq Haider about Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed’s alleged remarks against the superior judiciary of Pakistan at a public meeting in Palandari.

Mr Haider read out provisions from the AJK’s interim constitution and an election law regarding sanctity of the superior judiciary of AJK and Pakistan and said the practice to which Mr Majeed had resorted needed to be discouraged.

The speaker said since the calling attention notice relied on newspaper clippings which were “guesswork” he could not entertain it.

PML-N’s Dr Najeeb Naqi said the speaker was also present in that meeting where the premier had passed comments against the judiciary and how could he deny its occurrence?

However, as the speaker did not show any sign of changing his mind, the opposition staged another walkout.— Staff Correspondent