LAHORE, Dec 24: The Punjab Assembly session was prorogued sine die on Tuesday without transacting any business for lack of quorum when the ruling PML-Q chose to stay away to thwart the opposition’s push to debate the law and order situation and the government policy to grant autonomy to public hospitals and educational institutions.

Opposition members shouted shame, shame when Speaker Afzal Sahi announced that the session requisitioned by the opposition was being prorogued for an indefinite period for short quorum. He dismissed all appeals by the opposition to ignore the short quorum, saying he was doing everything in accordance with the rules of business.

At that time the session was being prorogued, only three Treasury members were present in the House while others could be seen in the lobbies, signing the roll-calls register while the bells rang to call them into the House.

“Since the session was requisitioned by the opposition, it was its own responsibility to ensure quorum,” the Speaker said while announcing the prorogation of the House.

Less than 70 MPAs, including the Treasury members, were present in the House when the session was prorogued. “The opposition could not bring even those 95 legislators who had signed the requisition,” he told reporters later on. He said under the rules, he should have summoned the House at 9am, but he summoned it at 10am only to allow the members coming from far off to reach in time,” he said.

The opposition — PPP, PML-N and MMA — was pretty much mad on PML-Q MPA Imran Masood, one of the three Treasury members present in the assembly, for pointing out quorum minutes after recitation from the Holy Quran.

PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah, who was undeterred by the chair’s repeated warnings to take his seat, urged the Speaker to “let the session continue”. “It has been a tradition of the House that no-one ever points out quorum at the beginning of the proceedings as the MPAs keeping coming during question hour. The way it has been done today smacks of an intrigue.”

He wondered why the chair had chosen to start the proceedings today “on time”. “In the past, the proceedings have always begun behind the schedule. Their (the PML-Q’s) actions suggest that they are not here to advance the cause of democracy, but to serve some army generals,” he said.

PPP’s Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan warned that the “(democratic) system would not work if the House was prorogued in this way”. He also took Imran Masood to task for pointing out quorum.

MMA’s Chaudhry Asghar Gujjar, whom the Speaker refused to administer oath due to short quorum, wondered how the problems of the people could be resolved if the government itself started behaving so insincerely.

A Treasury member, who asked not to be named, told this reporter after prorogation of the session that the PML-Q had abstained from the House to send a message to the opposition that “they would not be allowed to dictate the House”.

“We have more than two-thirds majority, and it will be us and not them who will determine when the session is to be called,” he said.

The Speaker, however, did not see any “planning on the part of the government to force prorogation of the assembly” without transacting any business.