KARACHI, May 17: Karachi City Council failed to meet on Friday, the last day of the current session due to lack of quorum, with the members of the Al-Khadim and the Al- Khidmat groups blaming each other for it.

Convener of the house, Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan, adjourned the house soon after it commenced as the number of the members present in the house was 110, while the required strength is around 127, roughly 51 percent of the total strength.

Nevertheless, all the three main groups in the house, namely the Al-Khidmat group led by Muslim Pervaiz, the Jhamoori group led by Najmi Alam and the Al-Khadim group led by Siddique Rathore deplored the putting off of the session.

However, members of the Al- Khidmat and the Al-Khadim groups blamed each other for the adjournment of the session and for working against the interest of the city by blocking the proceedings of the house.

Speaking on behalf of the Al-Khadim group, Razzaq Sanghani, deplored the previous day’s brawl in the house and said it was the responsibility of the majority group to ensure maximum participation to meet the required quorum. He accused the other group of using pressure tactics in the house and asked them to be more tolerant to criticism.

Later, leader of majority group, Muslim Pervaiz, along with supporting groups and female members of the house, met pressmen in the City government secretariat building and deplored the suspension of the session.

Expressing astonishment over the adjournment of the session, he maintained that the convener could have suspended the house for a couple of minutes, or possibly an hour so that the members who came late could join in and meet the quorum.

Women councillors belonging to different groups staged a small protest deploring the putting off of the proceedings, on the ground that they had come in the midsummer noon only to attend the session.

Meanwhile, Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan has formed a twenty-four member committee from the house belonging to all the eighteen towns of Karachi to study and work out a possible solution to water crisis in Karachi. — PPI