Treasury fails to ensure quorum in PA

Speaker surprises members by starting proceedings earlier than routine delay

LAHORE:

Most lawmakers were astonished when the Punjab Assembly session commenced considerably earlier than the routine delay on Monday.

Generally the assembly proceedings have been beginning at least two hours after the scheduled time. However, Monday proved to be a bad day for the government as there were only three lawmakers present when the proceedings started 21 minutes after the scheduled time of 2pm.

Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi chaired the session.

As he started the proceedings after Tilawat and Naat, the opposition moved to cash in on the very thin number of the treasury lawmakers in the house.

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Finally, PML-N’s Khalil Tahir Sandhu pointed out the quorum, at which the speaker ordered ringing of the bells for five minutes so that the government could complete the required strength in the house.

After the government failed to do so, the speaker was left with no option except adjourning the session for 15 minutes, giving another opportunity to the government to show its strength for continuing the assembly business.

This time, there were 10 lawmakers from both sides. Four of them were from PTI, three from PML-Q and three from the opposition.

Thus the treasury members again failed to fulfil the quorum. The speaker then adjourned the session till Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2021.