KARACHI: After waiting for a mere five minutes, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani on Friday adjourned the sitting till Monday for the lack of a quorum.

Contrary to the usual routine of calling the house in order up to one hour late to facilitate members of the provincial assembly, the speaker surprised everyone when he adjourned the session abruptly after recitation of the Quran at 10.05am — five minutes after the scheduled time.

Only three members from the treasury benches — senior minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Mukesh Kumar Chawla and Dr Sohrab Khan Sarki — were present in the house when the speaker, without asking for ringing calling bells, adjourned the sitting.

Lawmakers belonging to the opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement were sitting in their assembly chamber when they heard recitation of the Quran. They rushed to the house only to find that the speaker had adjourned it.

The MQM lawmakers, who were planning to ask the chair to take up their censure and privilege motions against Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, were visibly irked by the abrupt adjournment of the Friday sitting.

They termed it an illegal decision of the speaker as he did not fulfil the condition of ringing bells twice to call lawmakers in the house to meet the quorum.

MQM’s parliamentary party leader Syed Sardar Ahmad told reporters outside the house that the provincial government did not want to respond to their motions against the CM.

He said when the house would reassemble on Monday they would again take up the issue and ask the CM to withdraw his “inappropriate” remarks terming the MQM’s sit-in outside CM House as an attack on his palatial residence, and also demand expunging his remarks from the record of the assembly proceedings.

The deputy parliamentary leader of the MQM, Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan, said that it was the obligation of the government to complete the quorum but it failed to meet the quorum, which exposed its government.

He said that the MQM lawmakers were present in the assembly building but the session was adjourned to avoid tabling of the motions in the house against the chief minister.

He said when the house would resume business on Monday the MQM would once again try to table its two motions. “We will also raise the issue as to why the Friday sitting had been adjourned.

Later, senior minister Khuhro, who is also the parliamentary party leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said that it was within the powers of the speaker to adjourn the session for lack of a quorum and as such there was no illegality in his decision.

He said that the speaker had waited for six to seven minutes to give ample time to the MPAs concerned to turn up in the house but they did not come.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2015

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