The National Assembly on Friday suspended Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid legislator Tariq Bashir Cheema from today’s session over his alleged abusive discourse towards PTI’s Zartaj Gul Wazir.
Cheema delivered a speech in the assembly on Thursday, during which he was interrupted by Gul who jibed that he should talk about the Bahawalpur University case instead, in which Cheema’s son was a suspect.
When he was returning to his seat after meeting with the PTI’s Ali Muhammad Khan, Gul passed a remark which reportedly made Cheema angry and he went to Gul’s seat and was seen whispering something in her ear.
Members of the PTI-SIC were seen rushing towards the treasury benches, some of them even running over benches to physically attack Cheema, who was escorted out by some treasury MNAs.
As soon as he returned to his seat, opposition members started gathering in front of the speaker’s dais and lodged a strong protest, alleging that Mr Cheema had used very objectionable and abusive language and demanded action against him.
Later, PTI lawmakers went to the speaker’s chamber and demanded the suspension of Cheema’s membership. Informed sources told Dawn that NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq called Cheema, who later apologised to Gul “unconditionally”.
Talking to the media, PTI members including party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan confirmed the development, stating that Gul had accepted the apology. However, Gohar declared they would put forward a motion on Friday seeking Cheema’s suspension for the remainder of the ongoing session.
“Everyone advised me that ‘now that Cheema has come to you, you should let go of the matter’,” she told reporters.
Putting forward a motion to suspend a Cheema for the remainder of the session, NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said that during Thursday’s sitting: “An unfortunate incident took place between Tariq Cheema and Zartaj Gul.”
According to the motion, Cheema violated Rule 30 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, which states that no members may “erode” the “sanctity” or “dignity” of the house.
The speaker named him under Rule 21 of the same act, which gives the speaker the power to suspend members who abuse the rules “if he deems it necessary”.
“He thereby eroded the sanctity of the house […] thereby disregarding the authority of the chair and abusing the rules and willfully […] obstructing the proceedings”, he added.
MNAs present were overwhelmingly in favour of the suspension and passed the motion.
Speaker Sadiq said he will try to keep the house in order and praised the members for their role yesterday.
After Cheema was excluded from today’s sitting, Gul took to X to thank parliament for the move after yesterday’s “upsetting incident”.
“Yesterday, a very upsetting incident took place in the National Assembly.” Her post added that Cheema’s entrance to the House was barred by Speaker Ayaz Sadiq. “Thank you Parliament of Pakistan,” she wrote.
