An unprecedented raid by plainclothesmen in the early hours of Tuesday to flush out PTI lawmakers taking refuge in the National Assembly provoked a war of words in the lower house, before culminating in unanimous condemnation of the act from both sides of the aisle.
The assembly, convened around eight hours after plainclothesmen stormed the building just after 3am — disconnecting the power supply and barging into the Services Branch of Parliament House to whisk away the PTI legislators.
Sources told Dawn that a well-equipped police contingent, led by SSP Operations Arsalan Jahanzeb, had been deployed outside Parliament House for hours before some unmarked vehicles arrived on the scene. This was followed by the disconnection of electricity to the parliament building.
Subsequently, MNAs Zain Qureshi, Amir Dogar, Sheikh Waqqas Akram, and Naseem Ali Shah along with others were brought out from Parliament House and handed over to police for legal action.
Three of the four vehicles subsequently left the premises and the MNAs were bundled into different cars. After this episode, the power supply was restored and the ‘under custody’ MNAs were brought out of the building through the Cabinet Division gate, where they were ‘rearrested’ by the police. The detained lawmakers were later moved to the CIA Centre.
Tempers flare in NA
In the wake of this episode, tempers flared in the lower house during Tuesday’s sitting, with lawmakers demanding action against those who invaded Parliament House to round up their colleagues, against laws and parliamentary traditions.
At the outset of the session, which started around noon, PTI leader Ali Mohammad Khan was livid with the treatment meted out to his fellow MNAs.