Lack of quorum haunts govt in NA

Shah chastises govt for ignoring parliament; PPP MPs walk out over disappearances of Zardari’s aides

ISLAMABAD: The government continued to struggle to ensure presence of required number of lawmakers in the National Assembly as the opposition on Thursday twice pointed out lack of quorum, prompting adjournment of the session when a minister was speaking on the floor of the house.

First, a PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 12:30pm. Subsequently, a headcount was made and the house was found to be in order. However, just half an hour later, a PPP lawmaker once again pointed out quorum at 1pm which led to the adjournment of the sitting.

Since April 12 when the session started, the opposition has pointed quorum five times. However, the house on Thursday succeeded in taking up its entire regular agenda.

The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, APML, ANP, PML-F and QWP attended the sitting in which chairman of Standing Committee on Communications presented the periodical report of the committee for July-December, 2016.



The house took up two calling attention notices.

The first calling attention notice was about insufficient number of seats for admission of deserving students in schools of Islamabad.

The second notice was about sufferings of patients due to non-availability of proper medical treatment at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and the JI lawmakers walked out of the house when the government failed to give a satisfactory reply in this regard.

Strongly criticising the treasury benches on a point of order, leader of opposition Khursheed Shah said the government had weakened parliament by bypassing it on decision-making.

He said Premier Nawaz Sharif had no time for parliament despite the fact that this was the place which gave him strength during PTI’s 2014 sit-in. “Now you are weakening parliament and now no one will come to rescue you,” he said.

Shah said people join politics to earn respect “but why we are facing trails in courts”.

Talking with reference to the inquiry committee probing Dawn’s controversial report about a national security meeting, Shah said there were reports that prime minister’s adviser Tariq Fatemi was being sacked due to his alleged role in the scandal.

“[But] the Judge Sahab [heading the inquiry committee on Dawn leaks] says they will announce a decision after all five members of the commission evolve a consensus,” he added.



Later, the PPP lawmakers staged a walkout to protest against the disappearance of close aides of party Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari from various parts of the country.

Earlier QWP’s chief Aftab Sherpao raised the issue of blocking of CNICs and asked why the issue was being delayed. ANP’s Ghulam Bilour said a parliamentary committee’s recommendations in this regard were not being fully implemented. “Notification to this effect has not been issued yet,” he said.

Responding to them, Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi said a meeting of the committee would be convened in the next week and people would start getting relief soon.

Interestingly, an MNA of the ruling PML-N introduced himself on the floor of the house to the surprise of many lawmakers, including the chair. Khalid Magsi, who won election from Balochistan’s Jhal Magsi on a PML-N ticket, said he had to introduce himself as ministers of his own party did not know him.

The opposition benches reacted to this complaint by shouting ‘shame shame’.

Improving economy

Giving a policy statement, Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir said the merchandise exports rose by ten per cent in March this year and Pakistan's services exports nearly doubled in February this year.

“This is a rise of 90 per cent compared to the figure of January this year and also a rise of 90 per cent compared to the figure of February last year,” he said.



Khurram said Pakistan's share in the European Union’s textile market had gone up as a result of duty-free access to Pakistani products. “Pakistan’s exports to the EU have increased from 4.52 billion euros in 2013 to 6.28 billion euros last year,” he said.

He said textile exports to the EU had increased by 55 per cent during the three years period. He was in process of giving statement when the quorum was pointed out and the house was adjourned till Friday.