LAHORE (National Times) Two ‘parallel’ sessions were seen in Punjab Assembly on Saturday. The one session was going on inside the Punjab Assembly where the treasury benches were holding debate on the supplementary budget.

On the other hand, the opposition lawmakers held a ‘mock’ session outside the Punjab Assembly where they also ‘passed’ a resolution.

The session of Punjab Assembly started with Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan in the chair on Saturday to pass the supplementary budget.

However, the opposition MPAs staged walkout and boycotted the house proceeding.

The MPAs from the opposition benches joined their fellow colleagues who were staging sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly. The opposition started a ‘mock’ session outside the Punjab Assembly where they also passed a resolution against the defamation bill.

Earlier, the opposition members staged a protest outside the Punjab Assembly building as they were stopped from entering the premises and chanted slogans against the government.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan had promised to protect the prestige and honour of the House after the mayhem witnessed during Friday’s session when Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz delivered a speech after approval of next fiscal year’s budget.

Security staff, who were assisted by a large contingent of police, had blocked the entrance and checked the vehicles entering the compound to stop those members whose membership was suspended.

Information Minister Azma Bukhari said that the opposition misinterpreted our silence.

“We always wanted to take the opposition on board but they don’t want it,” said Azma Bukhari, while speaking in the House.

She added that the PML-N faced treason cases but it didn’t resort to the violence like PTI did on May 9.

Later, the speaker prorogued the session for indefinite time period.