LAHORE: It was a familiar scene in the Punjab Assembly on Friday when for the fourth time in the last six days, the House lost it proceedings to quorum crisis and that too within a few minutes of the start of the session.

Yet again, the opposition pointed out ‘numerical poverty’ as soon as the House began the Question Hour – hardly 15 minutes after the start, which included recitation from the Holy Quran and Na’at.

It was still the first question of the day when Ahsan Riaz Fatyana pointed out the quorum. The House had around two dozen members against the requirement of 93 when it started proceedings. After the headcount, the Chair ordered customary ringing of bells for five minutes but the number could only build up to 40. A ringing of bells for 15 minutes was ordered, which went on and on for around 35 minutes but only 75 members found their way to the House. After the second counting, the Chair adjourned the House till Monday afternoon.

Friday’s loss of quorum apparently had more to it than met the eye. According to some, it was a ‘trap’ and the Opposition simply sleepwalked into it. The agenda included a debate on law and order in the province which could have made the Treasury face some hard time defending the situation especially after one of its members (Inamullah Niazi) was robbed in close vicinity of the Chief Executive office a day before.

The Treasury, it seems, is shy of debating lawlessness issue in the House and kept the numbers low and the opposition, given its penchant for pointing out the quorum during the session, pounced on the opportunity.

The government was not interested in increasing the numbers to the required level. “Otherwise, it had kept the numbers intact for the last two days because it needed them for legislation,” explained one of the Treasury members.

“Today, the Treasury knew what was on the agenda and how much it could politically hurt debating law and order at this point of time. It could have been a public relations disaster as well, giving the opposition and the media a cause to blast the government. So, the loss of quorum on Friday was part of the plan. Had it not came from the opposition side, even the Treasury pointing it out could not have been ruled out,” he claimed.

Ahsan Riaz, when asked, explained his position outside the Assembly: “Debating or not debating anything in this House hardly makes a difference. The House had debated law and order countless times; did it make any difference? The opposition is protesting the Treasury’s behaviour -- bulldozing everything that it doesn’t like on the basis of numerical power and even the Chair is using discretionary powers against the opposition.

“It’s not a matter of one-time benefit to either party but a principled stand, where the Opposition is ready to take temporary loss. It can certainly bring law and order back on agenda whenever it likes.”

Published in Dawn December 3rd, 2016