LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly’s session prorogued without taking up government business on Friday.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal could only run the question hour and let the members present their adjournment motions between the pointing out of quorum twice. Lack of quorum is haunting treasury for quite long now.

The quorum was first pointed out soon after Tilawat and Na’at by PTI’s Murad Rass, blocking the speaker to begin question hour at around 10:25am. The session could resume after over an hour at 11:35am.

The House discussed questions and answers related to the Punjab primary and secondary healthcare department and several questions were pended or referred to the committee for proper answers to the questions asked. Parliamentary secretary Malik Muhammad Ali Khokhar answered questions.

In the meanwhile, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah stood up and requested that a resolution might be taken up out-of-turn regarding non-payment of salaries to journalists and their uncalled for terminations. The resolution was handed over to the assembly secretary to be taken up after the question hour.

As the Speaker took up adjournment motions and was pending some owing to different reasons, independent MPA Ahsan Riaz Fatiana pointed out quorum, which could not be completed.

Eventually, the Speaker read Punjab governor’s order regarding proroguing the session indefinitely.

RESOLUTION: The resolution submitted in the House regarding non-payment of salaries to journalists says: “The Punjab Assembly demands that Pemra and the federal government devise a service structure for journalists working in electronic media on the lines of Newspapers Employees Act -- identifying salary structure, timings, medical allowance and other privileges.”

The resolution also says that the Punjab Assembly condemns the termination of over 50 employees and non-payment of salaries in a media house.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017