ISLAMABAD: The issue of quorum continued to afflict the National Assembly for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, leaving many wondering if the lower house of parliament would be able to pass the bill for merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is scheduled to be tabled on Thursday.

There were 99 items on the agenda for the order of the day, including five bills and a number of motions, but nothing significant could be taken up for want of quorum.

In order to get a constitutional amendment passed, a total strength of two-thirds of the total number of members (228) is required, but less than one-fourth have attended the lacklustre proceedings for the past two days, raising doubts over the fate of the Fata merger bill before the outgoing assembly completes its term on May 31.

Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment dissident Abdul Rashid Godail pointed out the lack of quorum on Tuesday. Quorum bells were rung but it failed to attract the required number of members, forcing the chair to adjourn the house to meet again on Wednesday (today).

US diplomat

Earlier, speaking on a point of order, Dr Shireen Mazari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) protested against the government’s decision to allow the US diplomat — who was involved in a fatal accident in which a motorcyclist was killed — to leave the country under the pretext of diplomatic immunity, stressing that diplomatic immunity was not a licence to kill.

“No diplomat facing char­ges of murder is entitled to diplomatic immunity,” she said, adding that immunity never meant that one should take lives of innocent citizens of a country.

She claimed that the immunity given to Col Joseph was not in conformity with the Vienna Convention.

Dr Mazari pointed out that a Georgian diplomat was sent behind bars for seven years in the United States following the withdrawal of diplomatic immunity.

She asked the government to explain the reasons behind allowing Col Joseph to leave the country.

She accused the government of staging a “drama” to get the US diplomat out of the country. She said that one day the government claimed that they stopped him from leaving the country but then on another day, they said that he had quietly left the country.

Tribal areas

Former interior minister and chief of the Qaumi Watan Party deplored the fact that an official notification for extension of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the Peshawar High Court to Fata had not yet been issued, despite the fact that an act of parliament in this connection had already been signed by President Mamnoon Hussain after it was passed by the National Assembly and the Senate.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2018