LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly session on Thursday lasted one hour and 40 minutes as the opposition pointed short quorum and disallowed the treasury to have three government laws passed.

The broken quorum was pointed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI’s) Asif Mahmood and Speaker Rana Iqbal adjourned the session till Friday morning.

Through quorum, the opposition appeared to have avenged the same tactic employed by the treasury on Wednesday to what it said preventing it from protesting against Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan’s remarks about women.Earlier, PTI’s Asif Mehmood got annoyed after Speaker Rana Iqbal did not allow him to seek an extension in the time earlier given to a standing committee for probing the alleged grabbing of land of a colony in Rawalpindi. His colleague Mian Aslam Iqbal intervened, following which the extension was granted.

The speaker ignored a point out order by Mr Asif asking as to why police were still providing security to the wife of Najam Sethi.

Opposition Leader Mian Mehmoodur Rashid criticised the treasury for pointing out short quorum on Wednesday to, what he said, block the compulsory Quran teaching bill. The speaker said the bill would be taken up for consideration on Tuesday.

The question hour was a lackluster affair because of the absence of Revenue Minister Ata Manika and his Parliamentary Secretary Nazia Raheel, and Agriculture Minister Naeem Bhabha.

The speaker kept the agriculture portion pending while Mines Minister Sher Ali Khan struggled to answer question on revenue. He said recovering government land from people in Harbancepura was not easy because of many factors, including litigation. He did not name those influential people who had built huge villas on such land despite insistence by JI’s Dr Waseem Akhtar.

“There are no such palatial houses,” he said.

The minister could not also comment as to when an inquiry report into the illegal transfer of costly central government land in Dinga, Gujrat, would be submitted, saying it would be done at the earliest. The question was asked by PML-N’s Mian Tariq Mehmood.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2018