PESHAWAR: A session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was adjourned on Monday until Friday due to a lack of quorum.
As the house began proceedings with Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi in the chair, member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Sobia Shahid pointed out that the number of members required for the session weren’t in attendance.
On the chair’s orders, quorum bells were rung for two minutes butthe assembly secretariat’s staff found only 25 members, from both opposition and treasury benches, present.
Ms Bibi chair ordered the repeat of the exercise but just another member showed up, prompting her to announcea 15-minute break.
As the session resumed afterward, the chair ordered a headcount, which showed 28 lawmakers in attendance. She ordered the ringing of the bells for the third time but the house continued to lack quorum tohold the session. Even the PML-N’s lawmaker, who pointed out the issue, was absent.
Visibly frustrated, Ms Bibi adjourned the session until 2pm on Friday.
Member of the opposition Awami National Party Nisar Baaz resented the lack of quorum and said treasury members were not serious aboutthehouse’s proceedings.
“They [treasury] aren’t accepting the challenges from the province’s financial crisis to the poor law and order situation to rising unemployment rate,” Mr Baaz told Dawn.
He added that KP gave PTI a massive majority in the last elections but the government wasinterested in ruling the centre and not addressing its voters’ problems.
The ANP leader said treasury members always came to the house late and that almost all sittings, mostly scheduled to begin at 2pm, were held before 4pm.
“This is a waste of time and resources,” he said.
Mr Baaz said the people wanted MPAs to discuss issues and legislate to resolve them, but most lawmakers weren’t living up to their expectations.
PTI chief whip Akbar Ayub Khan wasn’t available for comments. He is reportedly in Islamabad to attend a wedding function.
Higher education minister Mena Khan Afridi said the house lacked quorum because membership of some treasury members was suspended by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
He said those memberships were suspended last week and since the ECP offices were closed on Saturday and Sunday, those members were most probably busy submitting their asset details to the ECP and thus, missing the sitting.
On January 17, the ECP suspended membership of 33 lawmakers over their failure to produce details of their assets and liabilities by the Dec 31 deadline, which was later extended to Jan 15. A list of lawmakers, whose memberships were suspended, includes 27 from treasury benches and six from the opposition side.
Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2025
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