PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s sitting was prorogued on Friday due to a lack of quorum.

Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan, who was in the chair, directed members of the assembly’s staff twice to do a headcount.

The first headcount found just 28 members of both the treasury and opposition benches to be in attendance, and the number reduced to 27 in the second headcount.

Maulana Hidayatur Rehman of the opposition Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal pointed out a lack of quorum at the outset of the session prompting the chair to order a headcount.

Members of the staff disclosed that only 28 members were present in the house.

Mr Jan ordered a repeat of the exercise. The number of attendees fell to 27. The deputy speaker later adjourned the sitting sine die.

Tally of attendees dropped from 28 to 27 in second headcount

Members of the opposition resented the chronic quorum issue and said the government legislated and amended laws to serve own political and financial ends, while its lawmakers disregarded the assembly’s rules of business.

“They [treasury members] come to the house only when laws are to be amended and that, too, for their own political and financial benefits,” parliamentary leader of the opposition Awami National Party Sardar Hussain Babak told Dawn.

He insisted that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had been ruling the province for almost 10 years but it members deliberately skipped the assembly’s sessions on Thursday as it’s a private members’ day.

“They [the government] call sessions but its members don’t attend them,” he said.

Mr Babak also criticised the speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly for what he claimed to side with the government in the house instead of staying neutral.

“Rules of business are violated and the private members’ day is always skipped,” he said.

The ANP leader also said the government held the session on Mondays and Tuesdays and adjourned them for Fridays, and the records would confirm it.

“This is how they skip private members’ day, which is reserved for members to propose legislation,” he said.

Mr Babak said Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan acted as the “PTI’s tigers and not custodians of the house.”

However, member of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party Nighat Yasmin Orakzai said besides the treasury, the opposition, too, was responsible for the quorum issue.

She said even if the cabinet members attended the session, the house won’t lack quorum.

PTI chief whip and labour and culture minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai could not be reached despite repeated attempts for comments.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022