Opposition holds symbolic protest in NA session

Federal government failed to complete quorum in session and was unable to advance its agenda

ISLAMABAD:

In a session of the National Assembly on Monday the opposition lawmakers entered the House with the pictures of Leader of the Opposition of the House Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leader Khawaja Asif and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Khursheed Shah and placed them on their seats as a protest for not issuing the production orders of the parliamentarians.

Chaired by NA Speaker Asad Qaiser, the federal government failed to complete quorum in the session and was unable to advance its agenda after question hour.

During the question hour, the lawmakers were informed that Pakistan Railways earned revenue of Rs454.67 billion and incurred deficit of Rs408.77 billion from 2005 to 2020, while the government paid a subsidy of Rs412.43 billion during the same period.

A PPP lawmaker raised a question of five million houses during the question hour. To which the minister of Housing and Works responded sarcastically, saying “be patient! The houses will be built.”

Later, PML-N lawmaker Pir Imran Shah pointed out at quorum as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs was all set to present an ordinance. However, the session was temporarily suspended.

As the government was unable to complete the quorum after waiting of 50 minutes, the session was adjourned till 4 pm on Tuesday (Jan 26).