K-P Assembly session becomes its longest

Chief Minister has attended only a dozen sessions, opposition leader is often found absent

PESHAWAR:

The current sitting of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly has also become one of its longest sessions.

This is the Assembly's fifth-longest sitting which had commenced on July 19, once again falling victim to a lack of interest shown by lawmakers.

A lack of quorum in the Assembly has become almost routine, with its sessions being suspended three times due to that reason.

Similarly, this session was also delayed four to five hours beyond its scheduled time due to a lack of interest shown by Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPAs).

The Leader of the House, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, has only managed to attend 11 or 12 Assembly sessions while Opposition Leader Dr Ibadullah has been absent from most of them.

Monday's Assembly session was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Sobia Shahid, however, pointed out the lack of quorum immediately after the recitation of the Holy Quran upon which the Deputy Speaker directed that the bells be rung for two minutes.

The Assembly Secretary then counted the number of members present in the House. Only 27 were found to be in attendance after which the Speaker adjourned the session for a prayer break.

When the meeting resumed, the required number of members was still not present in order to enable the proceedings of the House to be conducted.

The Deputy Speaker then ordered that the bells be rung again. But even that did not result in the presence of the required number of House members.

As a result, the Assembly session was adjourned until Friday.

Sources told The Express Tribune that, although the current Assembly session had started on July 19, it was still ongoing.

Long breaks have been taken in this session and the Assembly has also completed its 100 days. Around 33 members of the Assembly have also been suspended for not submitting their returns to the Election Commission which has also reduced the number of members in the Assembly.

Despite the lack of quorum at times, some laws have been passed on the basis of 'yes' and 'no' votes upon which the opposition has protested without success.

The sources further said that late starts to Assembly sessions had also become the norm. The time for the sessions in the winter is fixed from 10 am to 2 pm and in the summer from 9:30 am to noon, as per the rules.

The speaker can also change the time of the assembly session as per his discretion. However, it is being said that the other two rules are being disregarded and the sessions are being conducted based only on the will of the speaker.

The sources also claimed that the amendment to the assembly rules was made regarding the Speaker at a time when the duties of police personnel in the province were mostly allocated to educational institutions at the peak of terrorism.

The Assembly rules were amended so that the speaker could change the time of assembly sessions whenever they wanted due to a shortage of police personnel.