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HARDLY a week had passed since the Punjab Assembly Speaker withdrew the suspension orders against 26 PTI-supported MPAs embroiled in rowdyism when another incident of physical assault on a treasury MPA by his opposition counterpart took place in the middle of proceedings. The acting Speaker immediately suspended the MPA at fault, who happened to be one of the 26 recently reinstated legislators.
Although unruly scenes are witnessed in other legislatures too, the Punjab Assembly has been experiencing extraordinary turmoil for the last three years. The worst violence and unprecedented chaotic scenes were witnessed in April 2022 at the time of the chief minister’s election following Usman Buzdar’s resignation. The Assembly Hall had literally turned into a battlefield for fistfights. The deputy Speaker, Dost Muhammad Mazari, who was to preside over the sitting, was physically assaulted and security had to rush into the chamber to protect him. It was probably the first time that police in full riot gear were deployed inside the assembly chamber.
Recently, as the budget session on June 28 drew to a close, opposition MPAs charged towards the chief minister while she was addressing the House, raised slogans and scuffled with treasury members. Some members climbed over the desks and damaged the sound system. It was at that point that the Speaker not only suspended 26 MPAs for 15 sittings but also took the extraordinary step of fining 10 for damaging assembly property. The treasury benches were so furious that they decided to move a reference for the disqualification of 26 MPAs and remove 13 PTI-affiliated committee chairs through a vote of no-confidence. Fortunately, reconciliation followed before things could get worse.
The recurrence of violence within a week of the ‘reconciliation’ indicates a pattern and underscores a deeper problem — the absence of a democratic culture. Some unfortunate trends seem to be emerging in the series of rowdy and violent actions within the assemblies. The PTI wants to use the parliamentary proceedings to highlight their real or perceived grievances, foremost being the continued incarceration of its leader Imran Khan. Nothing wrong in that, but protest often crosses the red line set by the assembly rules. Displaying placards, surrounding the Speaker’s dais, tearing up assembly documents, raising loud slogans to drown out the proceedings, getting menacingly close to opponents’ benches and using indecent and unparliamentary language are the new normal. Scuffling with opponents and physical assaults are becoming more common. The louder and uglier the protest, the greater its perceived success. The general impression is that the parties’ leadership appreciate members’ aggression and, therefore, the practice is gaining currency to be in the good books of the leadership. Unparliamentary conduct is not the sole preserve of the PTI; other parties, too, resort to this practice. But in recent days, some PTI members have been most aggressive in such cases.
The Punjab Assembly has been experiencing extraordinary turmoil for the last three years.
There is no doubt that parliament is the right forum to voice differences of opinion and to protest against any wrongdoing by the executive. But legislators can do so in accordance with parliamentary norms. As opportunities to protest on the streets is becoming restricted in Pakistan, legislatures are increasingly used as substitute venues. The protests, instead of being kept with the confines of the rules, parliamentary norms and general decency, have increasingly come to resemble no-holds-barred street agitations. For some time now, solemn occasions, such the presidential address to legislators at the start of the parliamentary year and budget speeches delivered by the finance minister, have been chosen by the opposition for their noisy agitation as these events attract the most media attention. The result is that hardly anyone within the Houses or outside is able to listen to important policy statements.
There is no doubt that legislatures across the world are witness to unruly conduct within their precincts, but this is no justification for such an unhealthy practice in Pakistan too. Parliamentarians in most developed democracies do not use such tactics to get their points across.
It is often mentioned that protest is a fundamental right, which cannot be curtailed. The right to protest may be derived from Article 19 that deals with the freedom of speech. But even this right has been made subject to “any reasonable restrictions imposed by law”. In the case of the legislatures, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of each House define these ‘reasonable restrictions’, with wide-ranging powers for presiding officers to enforce the rules. Generally, the presiding officers avoid using their powers to deal with the violation of rules. Instead, they try to develop bipartisan consensus for rules’ enforcement. However, there seems to be a need now for presiding officers to firmly but even-handedly use their powers — as custodians of the House, it is their responsibility to protect the dignity of parliament.
Last but not least, taxpayers foot a huge bill to enable legislatures to function. For example, the cost of each working hour of Punjab Assembly members works out to a whopping Rs25 million or so. People are enraged when they see their representatives trading blows at their expense, rather than devoting their precious time to legislation, policy debates to solve governance problems and oversight of the executive.
The opposition may learn lesson from the federal Public Accounts Committee, chaired by a PTI-affiliated MNA, which recently focused on oversight of the sugar scandal rather than allowing itself to be distracted by the agitation. Another good example is from the KP Assembly, where members refused to accept the hawks’ advice to not pass the annual provincial budget and followed the constitutional path to approve the budget on schedule.
If legislators wish to win the people’s trust, especially of disillusioned youth, they need to seriously review their and their colleagues’ conduct in the legislatures.
The writer is the president of Pakistan-based think tank, Pildat.
X: @ABMPildat
Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025
