MPAs | Pakistan

Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan has ordered the suspension of 26 opposition MPAs for 15 sittings of the provincial legislature after their protests disrupted the proceedings, it emerged on Saturday. The members raised slogans and protested during Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s speech in the assembly yesterday, when she responded to PTI leadership’s comments that ex-premier Nawaz Sharif — also an MNA — had been removed from the political arena. According to an order issued by Malik on Friday, the suspended MPAs “became disorderly, beyond all parliamentary reasoning and practices”, including tearing the agenda papers and hurling torn pieces towards the treasury benches as well as using “offensive, abusive, and unparliamentary language and slogans”. The order was issued under Rule 210 of the Punjab Assembly Rules of Procedure 1997 (power to order withdrawal or suspension of member) and stated that the 26 MPAs violated four provisions of Rule 223. These were (c) (shall not interrupt any member wh...