ISLAMABAD, March 23: The treasury and opposition members of the National Assembly have blasted the federal minister of education, Zubaida Jalal, for not providing answers of a large number of questions put before her during the session.

They said it seemed that the ministry of education had developed a habit of deferring the answers of questions, put before it by the members of parliament. The copies of the oral and unstarred questions, distributed among the MNAs and the journalists, revealed that during the National Assembly session on Monday, the education minister gave replies of only seven questions out of the total 34 queries.

The ministry has been following this practice for one year despite a warning by Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain that answers should not be delayed. The education minister, while giving written reply to most of the questions, stated: "Requisite information is being collected from the quarters concerned and reply shall be placed before the House on the next rota day of this ministry."

Some members of the Assembly, while talking to Dawn, complained that they had to wait for a long time to get replies of their questions as the ministers or the ministries were not taking this practice seriously.

First of all, the ministers do not come to the House and if they come, they do not give satisfactory replies to the members, said a ruling party MNA. He was particularly critical of the education minister for not replying to a majority of questions. He said in most of the cases, the questions related to institutions and offices situated in the Capital.