Fifth consecutive day: NA adjourned over lack of quorum, once again

Government says it is framing a policy to cancel licences of automatic weapons

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday had to be adjourned early for the fifth consecutive day due to the lack of interest of lawmakers.

The session was held on Monday evening under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi. When the proceedings of the House started PPPP lawmaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah pointed out the quorum and stated why the government was holding the sitting at 3pm instead of holding it at 5pm which is routine.

After lack of quorum was pointed out, a headcount was conducted on the directives of the chair which led to the suspension of the proceedings. However, when the proceedings resumed the quorum was again found incomplete and the sitting had to be adjourned and the assembly was asked to meet again on Tuesday at 10:30am.

Question hour

Meanwhile, the federal government announced that it is framing a policy to cancel licences of automatic weapons issued to the general public after it was announced by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during his maiden speech in August.



The written reply, on behalf of Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, came after a query was raised by PPPP lawmaker Shazia Marri. The reply confirmed that a policy is being envisaged to cancel the licences of automatic weapons issued to the general public.

This question was part of the agenda of the NA’s Question Hour, however, the session could not be completed due to a lack of quorum.

Prohibited bore/automatic weapons are extremely lethal weapons and meant for law enforcement agencies, said the reply. It added that almost all over the world such weapons are not issued to citizens.

It also maintained that during the cabinet meeting held on August 15, it was decided that a committee under the prime minister’s chairmanship would examine the arms licensing regime with regards to placing ban on automatic and illegal weapons. In the meeting the interior minister was also tasked to collect data on prohibited and non-prohibited bores of arms licenses and present it before the committee.

Separately, another meeting was also held under the chairmanship of the interior secretary on August 18 with all stakeholders, all home departments of the provinces, AJK, GB, FATA and Chief Commissioner ICT regarding provision of data of prohibited bore arms licenses, the reply added.



In response to another query of a lawmaker regarding the country’s debt, the finance minister stated that the total internal and external debt of the country stood at Rs19,633.5 billion.

According to the details written in the reply, the net internal debt stood at Rs13,081.4 billion while the external public debt stood at US$62.5 billion.

While replying to the second part of the same question, on loans received from international institutions since January 1st 2013, it was stated that the country had taken US$15,412.7 million loans on a fixed rate. The reply added that US$4,251.6 million loans were received on floating rate from January 2013 to June 2017.

Earlier, at the start of the proceedings, the House offered Fateha for those martyred in Sunday’s blast in Bajaur Agency.



Due to a lack of quorum the House could not take up three government bills, a motion under Rule 259 and a motion of thanks appearing on the agenda. The House also did not take up two calling attention notices appearing on the agenda. Meanwhile, the issue also barred the assembly answering 38 starred questions which were written on the agenda.