KARACHI: Lethargy and disinterest of the lawmakers from the two sides of the aisle in the Sindh Assembly led to adjournment of the house well before completion of its agenda due to lack of quorum on Friday.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, who started the proceedings with a delay of one hour, expressed grave displeasure over the absence of majority of the members, a practice that has become frequent in the ongoing session.

“Less than 50 per cent members from the two sides attend the session,” he deplored and sarcastically asked the lawmakers to vacate their seats and continue in their personal engagements.

A visibly irked speaker said that the assembly met for just 100 days in a parliamentary year with four-hour sitting a day, yet majority of members preferred not to attend the proceedings.

The lack of quorum was pointed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Jamaluddin Siddiqui during Question Hour when only 31 members from both sides were sitting in the house.

The chair then ordered headcount and rang the bells for a five-minute break before finally adjourning the session to Monday as the lawmakers did not turn up.

Only two starred questions were answered in the house and the remaining agenda items — including six call attention notices, an adjournment motion, a privilege motion and two government bills — not taken up.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022