LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly speaker put off proceedings of the session for an indefinite period after seeing no let-up in the verbal clash between the treasury and opposition lawmakers for the third consecutive day here on Wednesday.

Members of both the sides came face to face when Law minister Muhammad Basharat Raja took the floor to negate the opposition claims of the death of three farmers, who were part of the protest held last week to seek better support prices for wheat and sugarcane crops and a lower flat rate for electricity for farm tubewells.

The minister said he was not allowed to speak then none else would be and accused the opposition of steering the province and the House towards the brink of disaster.

After an exchange of hot words, a sloganeering match began between the treasury and opposition as the latter encircled the chair of Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi staging a symbolic sit-in there.

Failing to control the situation, the chair put of f the proceedings sine die.

Earlier, the proceedings began af ter two and a half hours delay from its scheduled time of 2pm.

Former speaker Rana Iqbal criticised the PTIled government for f ailing to honour the unanimous resolution of the House calling for Rs2,000 per40kg support price of wheat, while three farmers lost their lives seeking a better price for their crop.

He said the government had promised to form a judicial commission to probe the killings but did nothing so far.

Chaudhry Iqbal Gujjar said the government should save the foreign exchange on import of wheat and instead pay a better price to local growers as suggested by the House.

PPP`s Hassan Murtaza lauded the speaker for rightly representing the farming community and demanded activating the Punjab Agriculture Commission as well as setting up the longawaited Chambers of Agriculture.

He said the sugarcane crushing season should also be started in time to prevent losses the growers incur because of the delay.

Talking to the media outside the assembly building, PML-N information secretary Azma Zahid Bukhari said all and sundry saw the `fleeing of a bogus and weak government from the House.

She said the PTI had been given a free hand for two and a half years by the opposition but the ruling party could not deliver in this period because a `puppet` was installed in Punjab.

She regretted that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar never spoke for the rights of the province during the Council of Common Interests meetings.