Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan has filed disqualification reference with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against 26 Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPA), citing unparliamentary conduct, rioting, and repeated violation of assembly rules.

 

On June 27, 2025, during a Punjab Assembly Session, opposition MPAs staged protests and caused a disruption in proceedings. In response, Speaker Khan suspended the membership of 26 MPAs- 17 were listed as belonging to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC)- for the next 15 sittings of the provincial legislature.

 

The members reportedly raised slogans during Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Maryam Nawaz’s June 27 speech in the assembly.

 

According to an order issued by Speaker Khan, the suspended legislators “became disorderly, beyond all parliamentary reasoning and practices," including tearing agenda papers and hurling torn pieces towards the treasury benches as well as using “offensive, abusive, and unparliamentary language and slogans”.

 

Khan, in his order, said he repeatedly tried to call the assembly to order, but the opposition “declined to act per the Rules and persisted with misconduct and disorder and kept challenging my orders and authority”.

 

The speaker Khan added that opposition MPAs had “disregarded [his] authority as speaker […] consistently and willfully obstructing the business of the assembly”.

 

The suspension order was issued under Rule 210 of the Punjab Assembly Rules of Procedure 1997, stating that the 26 MPAs violated four provisions of Rule 223, which were (c) (shall not interrupt any member while speaking by disorderly expression or noises or in any other disorderly manner), (f) (shall maintain silence when not speaking in the assembly), (h) (shall not chant slogans, display banners or placards, throw and tear table documents and reports, etc), and (i) (shall not indulge in rowdy behaviour).

 

Malik Fahad Masood, Muhammad Tanvir Aslam, Syed Riffat Mehmood, Yasir Mehmood Qureshi, Kalimullah Khan, Muhammad Ansar Iqbal, Ali Asif, Zulfiqar Ali, Ahmed Mujtaba Chaudhry, Shahid Javed, Muhammad Ismail, Khayal Ahmed, Shehbaz Ahmed, Tayyab Rashid, Imtiaz Mehmood, Ali Imtiaz, Rashid Tufail, Murtaza Iqbal, Khalid Zubair, Ijaz Shafi, Saima Kanwal, Muhammad Naeem, Sajjad Ahmed, Rana Aurangzeb, Shoaib Mir and Usama Asghar Ali Gujjar were among members, suspended by the provincial speaker.

 

Meanwhile, Media reports claim that the speaker visited the ECP office in Islamabad to formally submit the disqualification reference, which include evidence of the MPAs' disorderly actions. The ECP is expected to review the references and decide on the lawmakers' fate in accordance with legal provisions.