RECORDER REPORT

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution asking the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to quit in the light of Supreme Court’s verdict in the Panama Papers case in a controversial manner.

The house, however, failed to follow the laid down rules of business while adopting the resolution whereby the prime minister was asked to quit in the wake of the Supreme Court’s judgement so that he may present himself before the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) as an ordinary citizen.

The resolution was tabled in the house by PTI legislator Dr Haider Ali. The Deputy Speaker of the KP Assembly, Dr Meher Taj Roghani, who was presiding over the proceedings of the house, without putting the resolution for voting in the house, declared it unanimously passed amid uproar.

Allowing of the PTI legislator to move the resolution without suspending rules for the purpose triggered rumpus in the house and the opposition legislators, belonging to PML-N and JUI-F, stood up and started chanting slogans against the PTI leadership and gathered around the Speaker’s dais.

The resolution was also signed by the parliamentary leaders of the coalition partners, including Inayatullah Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Sikandar Hayat Sherpao of QWP and Mohammad Ali Shah of PPP.

Though the resolution was not put to vote due to rumpus in the house, deputy speaker announced that the resolution has been passed unanimously. Amid the ruckus, the chair adjourned the proceedings of house till Friday at 10am.

Later, talking to the media, the parliamentary leader of PML-N, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha, expressed his jubilation over blocking of the resolution against the prime minister.

He said that the treasury benches were making efforts to get the resolution passed from the house, but they didn’t allow them to adopt the same. He said that had the resolution been passed, they too would have tabled their resolutions against the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Speaker Asad Qaiser and Finance Minister Muzaffar Said.

On this occasion, ANP’s Sardar Hussain Babak, who earlier clashed with the Deputy Speaker on the floor of the house over her alleged partisan role, asked both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the house to wear the caps of PTI in the house.

He said that the matter was sub judice as the Supreme Court has ordered formation of a JIT to investigate the issue and hence there was no need to present such a resolution in the house.

PPP legislators were absent from the house as they were busy in a public meeting which was to be addressed by former president Asif Ali Zardari at Malakand Agency’s Badraga.