PTI’s Muhammad Basharat Raja has said the Punjab government would not allow the opposition to defeat the no-confidence motion against deputy speaker with the support of the ruling party’s 26 dissident lawmakers.

“If the defectors will be excluded from the opposition parties, they will not have a majority in the House,” he said, while addressing a press conference along with PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and PTI MPAs on Thursday.

Raja said the PTI had filed a petition in the court that the Election Commission of Pakistan should be ordered to decide the case against PTI dissident MPAs and de-seat them soon.

Earlier Thursday PA Speaker Elahi said he had to adjourn session as police harassed assembly secretariat officials and it could turn violent again.

“Police entered the Punjab Assembly on April 16, while a session was ongoing and physically harassed the lawmakers,” said the PA speaker, adding, an MPA was severely injured and was in intensive care unit.

He accused the PML-N of turning violent in the few days of being in government which had “never been seen in the last three and a half years of PTI rule”.

Speaker Elahi had convened session of the assembly today (Thursday) to vote on keeping or removing Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari.

However, a clash was expected in the House as police arrested PA Secretary Coordination Inayatullah Lak and moved him to Garhi Shaho police station.

A heavy contingent of police were deployed outside the Lahore High Court to arrest PA Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti. He had filed a case against the inspector general who on the orders of the deputy speaker deployed police in the assembly on April 16 when the lawmakers elected Hamza Shahbaz as chief minister.