PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani on Monday announced the issuance of notices to the lawmakers absent from the house’s proceedings for six consecutive days as the lack of quorum disrupted the sitting.

The sitting was adjourned after two headcounts as only 17 out of 145 lawmakers were found present in the assembly in the last count.

The issue of lack of interest in the house’s proceedings by both lawmakers of the opposition as well as government has consistently plagued the current session that forced the chair to express his displeasure time and again.

Mr Ghani had earlier announced the installation of biometric system to record the attendance of lawmakers in the assembly. However, on Monday the speaker expressed his helplessness to overcome the nonchalant attitude of both treasury and opposition lawmakers.

“What can I do,” apparently exasperated Ghani asked labour and human rights minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai saying the 145-member house is almost empty.

Questions deferred due to absence of ministers, sitting adjourned over lack of quorum

“As the next step, I will send notices to lawmakers abstaining from the proceedings for six consecutive days and will refer their cases to the Election Commission of Pakistan,” he said, adding that the assembly’s rules of business empowered him to act against absentee MPAs.

He directed members of the assembly’s staff not to mark absent lawmakers as present afterwards.

“I will take action against officials showing absent MPAs as present,” he said, adding that the secretariat had received around 40 leave applications.

However, the casual attitude towards the house’s proceedings by both lawmakers and government makes itself evident in one way or the other.

MPA Nadia Sher of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf pointed out the lack of quorum when Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan chaired the proceeding after the departure of Speaker Mushtaq Ghani.

On a point of order, Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani drew the chair’s attention towards the absence of members from the house, especially cabinet members.

He said the assembly was losing prestige as neither treasury nor opposition members were taking interest.

Similarly, the elementary and secondary education department informed the house in a written response to a question of MPA Nighat Yasmin Orakzai, “Rs23.5 million has been spent out of a sum of Rs13 million released from an allocation for the Government Girls Degree College Parachinar No 2.” The total college allocation is Rs22 million, according to it.

Apparently, there’s little checking of the written departmental response to the lawmakers’ questions before being shared with the provincial assembly.

Several questions were deferred due to the absence of elementary and secondary education minister Shahram Tarakai and health minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra.

The assembly was informed that 71 schools had been closed down in Peshawar district due to a lack of students.

Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said the enrolment in those schools was very low, so the department closed the schools down and shifted their students to the nearby schools.

The question was referred to the house’s relevant standing committee.

Awami National Party MPA Bahadur Khan said the elementary and secondary education department had failed to comply with the decision of the house’s standing committee regarding the commissioning of government middle school for boys in Jandol area of Lower Dir district.

He said the committee had directed the department to provide staff to the school, which was built four years ago, for the resumption of classes.

Opposition Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal member Inayatullah Khan, through a calling attention notice, asked the government to regularise around 1,000 employees of the defunct People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative, including doctors and technicians.

He said those employees continued to perform their respective duties without getting salaries and that the government should regularise their services.

Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said he couldn’t comment on the matter as it was sub judice.

He said initially, a private organisation, Sarhad Rural Support Programme, recruited those employees.

The chair referred the notice to the committee.

The assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Waqf Properties (Amendment) Bill, 2021, after incorporating two amendments of Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Nighat Yasmin Orakzai.

Special assistant to the chief minister Zahoor Shakir said the purpose of that amendment was to bring the rent of Auqaf properties on a par with the present market rate.

He said the department received Rs6,000 rent from a unit against the market rate’s Rs70,000.

The assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincially Administered Tribal Areas Levies Force (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Also, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Appointment of Law Officers (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was introduced.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2021