PESHAWAR: Lack of quorum continued to haunt the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday as the chair adjourned the sitting without taking up a single agenda item.

The only business witnessed on the floor of the house was recitation from the Holy Quran at the outset of the session, which lasted 15 minutes with Deputy Speaker Mahmud Jan in the chair.

The sitting began with only nine members present in the 145-strong house. The presence of 37 members in the house is required to make a quorum.

Besides other business, 10 questions were also placed on the agenda for Friday, which were moved by opposition members, including Shagufta Malik, Nighat Orakzai, Khushdil Khan, Sirajuddin, Sahibzada Sanaullah, Sardar Hussain Babak, Bahadar Khan, Faisal Zeb and Waqar Ahmad.

Not a single agenda item taken up by house

All questions were lapsed and no discussing held on the floor of the house as all movers of such questions were not present at the time when the chair placed each question for discussion.

Similarly, the adjournment motion also lapsed as its movers, including Inayatullah Khan, Sirajuddin, Humaira Khatoon and Waqar Ahmad, were also missing at the time when the chair moved it for debate. Likewise, the calling attention notice of MPA Shafiq Sher Afridi also couldn’t be discussed due to his absence in the house.

When only nine lawmakers were present in the house, MPA Baseerat Bibi of the Tehreek Islahat Pakistan drew the chair attention towards a lack of quorum.

The chair first asked the staff members to ring the bells for two minutes and later asked the secretary for headcount. Only 12 members were found present in the house.

The chair again ordered the ringing of the bells for two minutes. The lawmakers present in the house totalled 13 against the required number of 37.

“Neither the treasury benches nor the opposition are taking the assembly seriously,” the deputy speaker said about the constant lack of quorum.

He said no lawmaker came to the house on time, which cost the exchequer heavily.

“Next time, the sitting will start at the scheduled time whether the items on agenda lapse or not. It is the responsibility of the government and opposition to ensure quorum. This issue is getting serious,” he said.

In the last sitting held on Tuesday, the lack the quorum disrupted proceedings on three occasions.

Also the agenda for Tuesday wasn’t taken up completely as Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani adjourned the sitting until Friday due to a lack of quorum.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal member Inayatullah Khan told Dawn that it was inappropriate that lawmakers didn’t come to the house.

He said the people elected their representatives to highlight their issues on the floor of the assembly and participate in the legislation.

Inayatullah, however, said most lawmakers didn’t participate in the proceedings.

He said public awareness should be created to elect the lawmakers, who could fight for their rights.

The lawmaker also said usually, the sitting was held on Monday, Tuesday and Friday and as the members from other districts of the province went to their hometowns on Friday, the sitting had low attendance.

He said MPAs had time and again asked the speaker of the assembly to hold the sitting on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so that the legislators could go to their hometown on Friday, but in vain.

Mr Inayatullah said according to the parliamentary tradition, if the government called the session, it became the government’s responsibility to ensure attendance of its lawmakers for running the affairs of the house.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2022