LAHORE, June 19: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif came under fire in the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday for what the opposition called ‘instigating’ the people for violent anti-loadshedding protests in the province.

Opposition Leader Raja Riaz on a point of order said the chief minister was inciting the people to attack public and private properties and the residences of the public representatives, which was very unfortunate.

“These violent protests are sponsored by the PML-N’s Punjab government and I warn the chief minister if my residence (in Faisalabad) is attacked, he (Shahbaz) will be responsible for that,” Riaz said, challenging the chief minister to produce a single megawatt in one year.

PML-Q’s Seemal Kamran questioned the sanity of the chief minister, asking him as how could he instigate the people to damage the public and private properties. “The damaged properties do not belong to the federal government,” she reminded the chief minister. She said the chief minister was making his son (Hamza) a leader by sponsoring his anti-loadshedding rallies.

She said the special branch policemen were brought to his rally the other day to put up a better show. “Today the PML-N is taking out rallies to protest the loadshedding and tomorrow it will do so to express solidarity with Arsalan (son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry),” she added.

Samina Khawar Hayat questioned wasn’t it strange that the chief minister of a province was prompting the people for violent protests. She demanded Shahbaz’s resignation over the issue.

A lack of coordination between the PPP and PML-Q legislators was witnessed during Shahbaz Sharif’s speech.

When the PML-Q women MPAs started interrupting Shahbaz, their parliamentary leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and Opposition Leader Raja Riaz requested them not to do so. Law Minister Rana Sanaullah reminded both the leaders of their assurance that the opposition members would ‘keep the mum’ when the leader of the house took the floor.

PML-Q’s women legislators seemed in no mood to oblige their parliamentary leader rather they questioned the opposition leader as why the PPP members were observing restraint to target the chief minister.

However, having a brief interruption the chief minister made almost an hour-long speech underlying the reasons as why he was not coming hard on the violent protesters and the PPP-led federal government’s discrimination against Punjab.

Shahbaz said the industry in Punjab had been destroyed and it was expected that the people should not come out on roads in protest. He said in the national energy conference it had been decided that all the four provinces would equally share the power outages but it was not implemented.

“As the federal government did not stick to the decision Punjab would not observe two holidays a week. In fact being a poor country there should not be one holiday in a week. And shops could not be closed at 8pm in Punjab,” he made it clear. The chief minister deplored that the elements in the federal government were interested in making commission while signing electricity agreements. He said despite the federal government’s opposition and threats to register FIRs the Punjab government had allocated an amount of Rs29 billion in this budget to produce 80MW. Shahbaz Sharif said his government was ready to contribute Rs5 billion in the circular debt of Rs400 billion if the federal government recovered the amount looted in different scams.

There had been a competition of sloganeering between the treasury and opposition against each other’s leadership when the chief minister left the house. Raja Riaz registered his protest with Speaker Rana Iqbal that Rana Sanullah had given him assurance that the chief minister would listen to his viewpoint on outages.

Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, who was appointed finance minister a day before the budget speech this month, tabled demands for grants (Rs61.5 billion) for the police for 2012-13. Chaudhry Zaheeruddin objected that such a huge amount should not be allocated for the Punjab police as it had failed to protect the life and property of the people of the province. He said the police which had sought the help of the Rangers to guard the jails could not provide protection to the common man. He said kidnap for ransom cases were on the rise while the police were doing security duties of the VIPs. He said those who had engaged police for security duty should pay the expenses from their pocket.

Talking about double standards of justice, Zahir asked why there had been a different justice system for Moonis Elahi and Arsalan Chaudhry.

Other opposition members also criticised the Punjab government for its failure to control deteriorating law and order situation. They said Punjab was on top in crime graph compared to the other provinces.

WARNING: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has warned of taking legal action against those damaging public and private property during power riots.

The warning comes after threats by some federal officials of registering cases against the chief minister in case any MP is hurt in anyway in the protests which, they allege, are sponsored by the provincial government.

Speaking at a reception hosted by the traders of Ferozepur Road at a local hotel here on Tuesday, Shahbaz said that the energy crisis had made the lives of the people miserable. He said that people must protest against loadshedding but should not damage public and private property.

He said that stern legal action would be taken if anyone tried to damage the property.