LAHORE, Oct 12 The PML-N suffered massive political and moral humiliation when it failed to get a resolution, condemning “Oct 12 act of Pervez Musharraf,” through the provincial assembly because of short quorum on Monday evening.

The resolution, for which the Oct 12 session was convened, was on the party's agenda since long, but it faltered when it came to the number game. The PML-N, which also observed the “Defence for Democracy Day” on Monday, could not ensure attendance of 93 members (bare minimum to keep quorum), leave alone two-thirds (247 members) of the house it was aiming for.

To make the situation more embarrassing for the party, when law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan introduced the resolution at around 7.30pm and the quorum was pointed out by Siemal Kamran of the PML-Q, the house had around 70 members only.

The Speaker repeatedly ordered ringing of bells, which rang for about 25 minutes, and when member reassembled, the number had dropped to 44.

The PML-N has around 170 members in the 369-member house. If the 45-member Unification Group and the coalition partner (the PPP) are added to the tally, the Treasury strength should come around 327.

The Speaker had to adjourn the house for Tuesday morning as the party could not bring the required number to the assembly hall.

Mohsin Khan Lehghari of the Q-League needled the PML-N when he remarked that Nawaz League had been taking out anti-Musharraf rallies since Monday morning, but its failure to keep quorum at the most important political and moral juncture for the party left a big question mark hanging over the party in general and Chief Minister Shabaz Sharif in particular.

To put the evening failure in perspective, the Punjab Assembly started its session on the wrong foot on Monday morning. The session began late by 75 minutes as the treasury benches were busy in “Defence of Democracy Day,” and women legislators from the PPP and PML-Q staged a walkout as soon as the proceedings started.

When the session did start at around 4.15pm instead of 3pm, there were hardly 100 members in the house - just seven more than the minimum number needed for the proceedings -- and they too at their rowdiest.

Even Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal had to request members, “At least listen to me when I speak.” But, no one seemed ready to lend him an ear. It was free for all. The pent up emotions of 101-day hiatus between the last session and the current one were too strong to allow verbal sanity to the house.

Even the announcement for fateha for the army men who laid down their lives during the attack on the GHQ could not bring order to the House as there were calls for fateha for many others also, and some even asking for prayer for all those killed during the last 11 days.

However, Sugheera Islam of the PPP interrupted this cacophony when, speaking on a point of order, she protested “discrimination” against women in provision of development funds and led a walkout by her fellow party women parliamentarians. The woman members of the PML-Q also chimed in, and so did Najaf Sial because he too was not given development funds.

As these members staged walkout, Ijaz Shafi of the Unification Group added fuel to the fire by standing up opposing “any female claim to development funds.” The woman members were neither elected nor had a constituency to lay claim to the funds meant exclusively for development of constituencies, he said.

“What they need funds for,” he asked and insisted “They did not have any right to development schemes and could not be treated on a par with male members who got elected through contesting polls.”

The woman parliamentarians, returning to the house after ending their boycott, put Mr Shafi on the chopping block. Nargis Faiz of the PPP led the charge and told the house “Women have been taunted by the likes of Ijaz Shafi for too long. They (women) have reached the assembly due to long political struggle and were still struggling for the rights of their fellow women.”

She sought the Speaker's ruling on whether the women were “equal to male parliamentarians and whether they have claim to development funds.”

Opposition leader Chaudhry Zaheerud Din lent support to his woman colleagues. Condemning the remarks of Mr Shafi, he said woman parliamentarians were “part of the Punjab Assembly and have long political struggle to their credit. They were equal to male parliamentarians.”

Speaker Rana Iqbal also declared “Woman parliamentarians are as much part of the house as any other member, including myself.”

The press gallery also staged a boycott against “manhandling of journalists” by the security staff at Aiwan Iqbal. They ended their 90-minute boycott after receiving assurance from the law minister for constituting a committee to look into the matter.