Opposition walks out of NA over ministers’ no-show

Session adjourned till Monday due to lack of quorum

ISLAMABAD: Just a day after passing a constitutional amendment with a two-thirds majority, the National Assembly failed to meet quorum on Friday, and was adjourned till Monday.

Members of the opposition, irritated by the no-show of federal ministers, walked out of the session in protest.

The legislation business in the lower house of has been suffering for the lack of quorum for the past many sessions.

The house took a calling-attention notice on the cutting down of trees as old as 30 to 40 years in Islamabad to widen roads. The members also expressed concern over the chopping of trees along the Embassy Road in Islamabad, while JUI-F legislator Naeema Kishwar Khan deemed it a crime of a serious nature. She said the Capital Development Authority (CDA) should be asked who ordered that the trees be cut down.

The parliamentary secretary on interior responded that the CDA had cut down 245 trees and under an accord, 10 trees had to be planted against every tree cut. He also informed the house that 200 trees had already been planted out of the 2,450 required to be planted against the 245 that were cut.



Kishwar, however, again emphasised on how old the trees were and asked if CDA had machinery which could be used to relocate the trees instead. She added that despite heavy smog and money being spent on projects such as Green Pakistan, CDA was chopping down old trees.

MNA Tahira Auranzeb spoke about issues facing the people with disabilities. She expressed concerne over lack of facilities for taking wheelchairs into government offices. She stressed the need for taking measures to provide them relief.

Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, the state minster for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) assured her that measures were being taken in this context.

The House could not take up another calling-attention notice pertaining to the Indus River System Authority technical committee and the 36% shortage of water.

Lawmakers from the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPP-P) lamented that ministers were not available to answer such an important issue. The PPP-P lawmakers and those of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and other parties walked out of the house for this reason.



The assembly met for around an hour and Speaker Ayaz Sadiq presided over the sitting for around 10 minutes after which Panel of Chairpersons’ member chaired the rest of the session. The leader of the House i.e. the prime minister and the Leader of the opposition did not attend the assembly session.

The chairpersons of the Standing Committees on Planning, Development and Reform, Water Resources, Human Rights and Interior presented periodical reports of their respective committees for the period of January to June, 2017.