Opp-led PA session restores House's 'autonomous status'.

LAHORE -- Following its rejection of the governor's ordinance, which clipped powers of the speaker and the secretary and placed the proceeding under the provincial secretary law, the Punjab Assembly led by Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and attended by the opposition on Tuesday amended the rules of business to 'restore the autonomous status of the House.'

The amendment empowered the secretary assembly to summon and prorogue the House, as has previously been the case and so is the case with other three provincial assemblies. The secretary assembly will issue a gazette notification in this regard.

Two separate sessions of the Punjab Assembly have been going on - one led by the treasury at Aiwan-i-Iqbal and other spearheaded by the opposition at the assembly building - since mid-June, when the governor prorogued the previous session through an ordinance, called fresh one for the very next day to pass the provincial budget and also repealed powers of the speaker to summon bureaucrats.

The governor's ordinance was later approved as an Act by the treasury session and stripped the secretary assembly of his powers to start and end proceeding through the gazette notification.

The session led by the opposition and being held at a different place, however, rejected the ordinance very next day, plunging the province into a constitutional crisis, which landed in the court and is yet to get resolved even after two weeks.

'The changes in the Rules of Business are a constitutional process, which can only be carried out by the assembly itself under the same powers. The Rules of Business also narrate the process how can these changes be made, thus the rules and changes are property of the House. An attempt was made to...