At least 21 women and three members of minority communities took their oaths as Members of the Punjab Assembly (MPAs) on reserved seats on Friday, as the provincial assembly’s session was disrupted by a scuffle caused by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council legislators.
The Speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Malik Ahmad Khan, gave the oath to the newly inducted lawmakers on the reserved seats.
The oath-taking event took place amid noise and turmoil in the provincial house, with opposition members chanting slogans throughout as the politicians swore in.
“These seats were our right, which was taken away from us and given to other parties,” the opposition members chanted as they stood in front of the speaker’s podium.
Since the February 8 general elections, PTI-backed SIC members have been demanding their entitlement to reserved seats in the National and Punjab assemblies, claiming that their mandate was stolen after the elections in the province and other regions of the country.
A day earlier, SIC Chairman Hamid Raza petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC) to assert the party’s right to reserved seats in the National Assembly, claiming that the election body is neither a tribunal nor a court.
The suit further demanded that the SIC receive reserved seats in accordance with the proportion of seats in the Punjab Assembly.
