AJK opposition locks entrance to assembly hall.

MUZAFFARABAD -- Opposition lawmakers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday created a scene in the Legislative Assembly building by locking the glass door of the main hall and ensconcing themselves in chairs outside it, blocking the entry and exit of treasury members throughout the day.

The 20-member opposition is on a boycott of the budget session in protest against an amendment to the Rules of Procedure of Assembly, empowering the government to appoint cabinet members as heads of the standing committees as well as alleged denial of development funds to them on a par with treasury members.

At about 10am on Wednesday - half an hour before the session was scheduled to begin -the opposition lawmakers fastened the glass door with a cycle wire lock, seated themselves in chairs they had brought from their nearby chamber and arranged in a square shape to prevent entry to the hall.

In the meantime, a meeting between four each members from both sides was also held in the opposition chamber, but to no avail.

Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Latif Akbar told reporters that their side did not press for [grant of] funds and instead made just one demand about withdrawal of the 'unlawful amendment' to the Rules of Procedure 'but the government refused to accept it'.

The stalemate delayed the session for more than three hours, forcing the unruffled treasury members to enter the hall from the visitors' gallery, hardly three feet higher than the main hall. As the session began, with deputy speaker Chaudhry Riaz Gujjar in the chair, PML-N lawmaker Ahmed Raza Qadri switched off power supply to the hall from an electricity panel affixed outside the glass door. But the assembly staff made an alternate arrangement to restore electricity supply.

During the session, among other lawmakers, two former premiers - Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi from the PTI and Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan from Muslim Conference (MC) - also spoke and...