LAHORE: The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf boycotted the Punjab Assembly proceedings on Wednesday as a protest against what its leader said the attitude of the establishment.

`We are walking out of the house in protest against the establishment,` opposition leader Malik Ahmed Khan Bhachar said.

Whenever police would raid our homes, they said that they had been sent by a sensitive agency, he added.

He said as the speaker and deputy speaker were helpless in resolving the issue, it was useless for the opposition to sit in the house.

Earlier, the opposition members protested in the house raising slogans for the release of the PTI founder. The PTI MPAs were also holding placards in their hands inscribed with the demand of releasing Imran Khan and declaring Feb 8 as the black day.

Mr Bhachar demanded that opposition lawmakers be given time tospeak their mind on point of order about the police atrocities they faced on Feb 8, when they were to protest against alleged vote theftinthe2024 general election.

After half a dozen PTI MPAs had been given the floor one after another, the treasury members protested demanding that the ruling party legislators should also be allowed to respond to the opposition.

At this the opposition walked out of the house as Deputy Speaker Malik Zaheer Channar, who was holding the chair, regretted the attitude of the opposition. He said that the opposition should have listened to the government`s stance.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mujtaba Shuja said that in fact May 9 was the black day in the country and not Feb 8, which was rather the day when the country resumed its journey on the path of development.

He said the government did not check any peaceful protest but the opposition had a track record ofviolence during its protests.

However, Mr Channar said that as custodian of the house it is his responsibility to protect the opposition members too. Urging the minister to forget the past role of the opposition, he said the arrest of PTI MPA Shahid Raza`s children by the police deserved to be condemned. He directed the minister to form a probe committee and to bind the inspector-general of police to investigate the incident.

BHACHAR: Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar has taken exception to provincial cabinet`s decision to approve supplementary budget of Rs200 billion for different development schemes, while the Punjab Assembly called a pre-budget session a day late.

`If the Form-47 Punjab government`s cabinet was determined to approve the supplementary budget on its own, then why was the government spending millions of rupees on the Punjab Assembly session called on Wednesday,` Mr Bhachar observed.

The opposition leader said the `uncle-niece government` was imposed illegitimately and com-mented that the chief minister was running the provincial affairs on TikTok.

`PTI founder Imran Khan rightly says that this government is powerless like an orderly and the real power lies somewhere else,` he said and added that this government could not even decide to allow party workers to meet Mr Khan at Adiala Jail.

Mr Bhachar lamented that the government was busy in doing legislation to block `one person` andaddedthatthe establishment would soon shun the incumbent rulers.

The opposition leader said the Punjab government was blowing its trumpet that the PTI was no more popular among people but on the other hand was determined not to give it permission to hold its political public meetings.

`If people are not with us, then how the government was nominating thousands of people in FIRs,` he said.

Mr Bhachar said the PTI was still sitting in assemblies so that the system should not be derailed.