ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's name is at the top of the list of those MNAs who "remained absent throughout the last session" of the National Assembly without any information or leave application , NA Secretariat record revealed.
Majority of those who remained absent throughout the 21st session of the National Assembly, that continued from September 10 to 24, belonged to the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and its coalition partners.
The treasury members who did not attend the session even for a single day "without any information or leave application" were: Rana Tariq Javed, Ayela Malik, Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan, Mazhar Ahmed Qureshi, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, Abdul Ghaffar Khan Jatoi (PML), Khalid Ahmed Khan Lund (Patriots), Dr Farooq Sattar (MQM) and Dr Tahirul Qadri (PAT).
Interestingly, the name of jailed ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi is also there in the list of those who remained "absent without any information" to the speaker. Other opposition members who did not attend the whole session were MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Ghulam Ali Nizamani of the PPP.
The record showed that PML president and former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also came to the assembly only on the first day and then remained absent. Besides, Aftab Ahmed Khan Khichi and Tahir Bashir Cheema also attended the session for only one day.
It may be mentioned that during the last session the government had to face embarrassing situations when Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain adjourned the proceedings due to lack of quorum.
A large number of treasury members openly and in private conversations said maintaining quorum was the responsibility of 62 ministers and 37 standing committees' chairmen.
It was reported in the press at that time that a large number of treasury members were not attending the session regularly as a mark of protest as they were not made ministers by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The record confirmed that majority of the treasury members skipped the proceedings after getting their attendance registered. According to the attendance record, there should have been no quorum problem during the session except for September 21 when 165 members of the treasury and opposition were absent.
The National Assembly met for only nine days during the 21st session during which 223 members remained absent for one day or more. Out of 223 members, 112 belonged to the treasury and 111 to the opposition.
According to the record, a total of 77 members were absent on the first day on September 10, 60 on September 13, 52 on September 14, 62 on September 16, 83 on September 17, 86 on September 20, 165 on September 21, 70 on September 23 and 70 on September 24.