ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain put off legislative business in the National Assembly on Friday after the opposition refused to assure the government that it would not point out quorum.
The request to the opposition was made by the Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, after noticing a lack of quorum in the house due to the absence of a large number of treasury members, including the ministers.
The response of Liaquat Baloch, the parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), was blunt: “We will not provide you the required quorum to pass government bills.”
Mr Baloch said the opposition parties believed it was the responsibility of the government to maintain quorum during legislation.
Dr Sher Afgan then went to the opposition benches and talked to People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNAs, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Ghulam Murtaza Satti, to seek their cooperation, but in vain.
Under the rules, any member can point out quorum and the National Assembly cannot hold proceedings if a minimum of 86 members are not present in the 342-member house.
There were 10 bills on the agenda of the Assembly, including the controversial Defence Housing Authority, Islamabad, Bill, 2005, the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking (Amendment) Bill, 2005, the Banking Companies (Amendment) Bill 2006, a e bill seeking setting up of National Commission for Human Rights, the bill to repeal the National Development Finance Corporation Act 1973 and the bill to provide for the conversion of the Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan into a public limited company.
Later, the speaker went to his chamber and MMA’s Dr Farid Piracha conducted a `free-for-all proceedings’, during which the members were allowed to speak on any issue on points of order just to drag the session till Friday prayers.
During this time, the MMA members staged a token walkout to condemn the military operation in the tribal areas. The issue was raised by Maulana Naik Mohammad, who accused the government of bombing and killing innocent people.
Maulana Abdul Malik of the MMA asked the government to open the Lal Masjid for prayers. He also condemned the government for the desecration of Holy Quran during the operation last month.
The MQM and the MMA members from Karachi highlighted the issue of power crisis in the city. Mohammad Laeeque and Asadullah Bhutto of the MMA said the city government of Karachi had failed to provide relief to the people after torrential rains.
Abid Ali Umang of the MQM criticised the performance of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) and asked the MMA to cooperate with the elected representatives to help resolve the power crisis.
Earlier, during the question hour, the opposition members took the federal education minister to task for his remarks during a speech at a function in Islamabad that the medium of education in schools should be English, and not Urdu.
The minister denied having passed any such remarks, but the opposition members insisted that they had listened to his speech on TV channels. They alleged that the minister had termed teaching in Urdu a wastage of time and that he was making a wrong statement on the floor of the house.