ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has convened a meeting of the ruling party’s parliamentary group at the Parliament House on Wednesday (today) after the government on Tuesday failed to ensure quorum in the National Assembly for the seventh consecutive day.

Sources told Dawn that chief whip of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Malik Aamir Dogar had sent text messages to all the MNAs on the treasury benches to attend the meeting to be presided over by the prime minister at 2pm at Committee Room No 2 before the start of the National Assembly session on Wednesday as the government planned to put motions referring the electoral reforms bills to the joint sitting of parliament for a voting.

The motions seeking the approval of the house to refer the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and the Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021, which had already been passed by the National Assembly but could not be approved by the Senate, to the joint session of parliament was on the agenda of the National Assembly when the lower house had begun its session on Sept 17.

Govt may put motions on poll reforms bills in NA for voting

Later, the two motions were dropped from the agenda when amid a raging controversy over the government’s plan to rush through two contentious election-related bills providing for introduction of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and right to vote for overseas Pakistanis, the government and the opposition agreed to form a parliamentary committee to discuss the electoral reforms.

However, during the assembly’s sitting on Sept 22, the opposition blocked the government’s move to table a motion authorising the speaker to constitute a parliamentary committee on electoral reforms, terming it “controversial” and not in line with the agreement reached between the opposition and treasury members during a meeting with the speaker held a day earlier.

Shazia Marri of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had intercepted Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan when he started reading out the motion and asked Speaker Asad Qaiser to allow her to see its text before its presentation to the house for approval.

Later, PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar said they had objected to the motion because it was not in line with the agreement reached with the government. He said it had been agreed that the committee would be formed to discuss the electoral reforms and not the controversial election amendment bill regarding the use of electronic voting machines as mentioned in the motion which Mr Babar was about to present.

Earlier, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri adjourned the sitting of the assembly till Wednesday evening after the opposition members once again pointed out lack of quorum.

Interestingly, Mr Suri had ignored the opposition members who were pointing out quorum, but it was PM’s adviser Babar Awan who told the chair that under the Constitution he could not continue to run the business after pointing out of quorum. The deputy speaker then ordered a headcount and as usual found it lacking.

The quorum has been haunting the National Assembly for quite some time, but since the start of the fourth parliamentary year last month, the issue has now become serious and acquired the form of a chronic problem.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2021