Assembly session in K-P adjourned over lack of quorum

Opposition members decry non-serious attitude of treasury benches

PESHAWAR: With all treasury members gone to attend PM Imran’s public gathering in Jamrud, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly session was adjourned on Friday for the lack of quorum.

The session was adjourned till April 8 as only three members of the provincial assembly from opposition and government benches were present in the session while no ministers were available for carrying out the session  proceeding.

In the absence of Speaker Mushtaq Ghani, the session began under the chair of Fazal Shakoor, when the member of the government benches Taj Muhammad Tarind brought the attention to the check the assembly quorum and on counting the session was adjourned till the next week.

Later the opposition members came and were disappointed to know that the session has been adjourned.

The opposition members staged protest by sitting on the stairs of the assembly. The took strong exception to the non-serious attitude of the government members who were also absent from the session.

The government members told the media that all of MPAs and ministers were in Jamrud to attend the public address of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

While the opposition members Inyatullah Khan, Nighat Orakzai, Bhadur Khan, Rehana Islamil, Khushdil Khan and Homira Khatoon sat at the front stairs of the assembly building and chanted slogans against the government attitude.

While interacting with media they said that millions have been spent from public exchequer on the daily assembly session, but the treasury MPAs skipped proceedings on the excuse of the arrival of the PTI leadership at Khyber district.

The treasury MPAs should pay the expenses of the session from their own pockets, opposition members told Daily Express. The PTI MPAs should realise that it was taxpayers’ money they were wasting when they deliberately miss the session.

They warned of staging protest in front of the speaker provincial assembly on deliberately missing the session just to attend political gathering in Khyber district.

“The assembly session was called in on the demand of the opposition benches, it’s the prerogative of the opposition benches to be taken into confidence before adjourned the session without their consents,” Night Orakzai said.

“We condemned such none serious behaviour of the treasury members, we would protest in the coming week session,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2019.