LAHORE, Aug 20: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday condemned killing of innocent Kashmiris at the hands of Indian forces on Aug 11 as well as the Dera Ismail Khan suicide bombing on Aug 19 in which 30 people died.

Before being prorogued for an indefinite period, the eighth session of the house unanimously passed a resolution tabled by Shaikh Alauddin from Kasur condemning firing on innocent Kashmiris who, led by Shaikh Abdul Aziz, were advancing to Muzaffarabad in a peaceful procession of 600 fruit-laden trucks taken out to protest their economic slaughter.

He said New Delhi was exporting 1,000 items to Islamabad, converting the latter into a consumer market, but was not serious in resolving the decades-old Kashmir dispute.

He also criticised a dinner organised by an NGO for Indian and Pakistani people, two days after the killing of Shaikh Aziz and 23 other Kashmiris.

Another resolution was moved by PPP’s Sajida Mir to condemn the D I Khan suicide bombing and show solidarity with the people of NWFP.

The mover had used the word “Pakhtoonkhawah” province, but the chair objected to it and made her to replace it with “the NWFP” for the name of the province had not yet been constitutionally changed.

Earlier, the house saw one of the worst commotions when PML-Q forward bloc’s Najaf Abbas Sial took the flour to participate in a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by Shaikh Alauddin on the very first day of the current session seeking Hajj quotas for MPAs.

Sial, who “grabbed” the floor by claiming to be a leader of the Muslim League “unification group”, would be hackled down by PML-Q members with slogans of lotay (turncoat) whenever he would try to utter any word. This led to an exchange of words between him and PML-Q women members with the discourse occasionally entering the realm of ‘non-parliamentary language’.

A visibly annoyed Sial, finding no way out, resorted to sloganeering of “Musharraf ka jo yaar hay, ghaddaar hay ghaddaar hay”, and was well responded by treasury members as the chair was helplessly seeking order in the house.

Alauddin pointed out that the two-member committee consisting of senior minister Raja Riaz and law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan did not report on its efforts to get Hajj quota for the MPAs from the federal government, while advertisement had been released to the media for granting quotas to private tour operators.

He deplored that Senators, who were elected by the MPAs, were given the quota though they had no direct link with the masses.

Rana Sana said the demand had been put before the federal government but so far no response had been received from it.

PPP’s Shaukat Basra demanded that to acknowledge status of the MPAs they should also be issued blue passports and

that a resolution to the effect should also be passed by the house.

The speaker opposed the move saying any step regarding such ‘sensitive matters’ should be taken after proper coordination.

PML-N’s Saeed Akbar Niwani seconded the chair arguing that the MPAs were here to fight for masses’ rights and not for their status and protocol. Sial said if protocol was a bad thing then the chief minister and ministers should also desist from it. He said if grade-18 officers and their families could be issued blue passports then why not the MPAs.

Later, a woman MPA of the PML-Q pointed out quorum as only 38 against the required strength of 94 members were present in the house at that time.

The chair ordered ringing of bells for five minutes to call in the MPAs sitting in the cafeteria or galleries. But when it did not help, the house was prorogued sine die.