The Pakistani National Assembly witnessed a commotion on Tuesday as lawmakers from the treasury and opposition benches nearly came to blows and hurled objects at each other, according to local Pakistani news websites.
The situation turned tense when the PTI's Ali Nawaz Awan and the PML-N's Rohail Asghar and other leaders exchanged heated words as Shahbaz Sharif spoke for second consecutive days, reported Pakistani local news website.
Sharif, the Opposition leader the Imran Khan government over 10 million jobs that were promised. "Where are the $300bn that were supposed to be brought back to the country from abroad?", he questioned. Sharif further slammed PM Imran Khan, calling his claims of elimination corruption from Pakistan as "hollow".
Later, budget books were seen flying across the National Assembly hall as lawmakers from both sides attempted to hit each other.
As Shahbaz spoke, tempers rose when the government and Opposition lawmakers came face-to-face.
Pakistan's ruling party MNA (MP) Ali Nawaz Awan was seen abusing the opposition and throwing book at them after the opposition called Imran Khan government as 'Donkey Rajma ki Sarkar'. A woman lawmaker tried to pull the PTI MNA away from the group of legislators who were shoving each other.
"Today the whole nation saw on their TV screens how the ruling party resorted to hooliganism & even naked abuse. Only goes to show how ethically shallow Imran Khan and his whole party are and how PTI has turned into a fascist and abusive party. Unfortunate!", tweeted Sharif after the session.
On Monday, in an unprecedented move, treasury members stopped the opposition leader from opening up the general debate on the budget, declaring that the government would not allow him and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to speak in the National Assembly without first having a ‘written guarantee’ that they would hear speeches of Prime Minister Imran Khan and ministers silently.
