Lacking quorum again, NA session put off

Speaker regrets opposition's lack of interest in proceedings

ISLAMABAD:

National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Friday expressed regrets over the opposition's walkout from the proceedings of the lower house of parliament and subsequently pointing out of a lack of quorum that led to the adjournment of the sitting.

The speaker stated that the opposition chose to walk out from the house at a time when important issues were on the agenda. He stressed that the most of the questions on the Question Hour agenda were submitted by opposition members.

"It is disappointing that the opposition chose to walk out during proceeding when the house was discussing important national issues," he said. "It is regrettable that the opposition distances itself from parliament's core responsibilities," he added.

The speaker said, 30 members participated in a debate on water canals issue, but most of the opposition parties, except for the Jamiat JUI-F were absent on that day. Due to a lack of quorum on Friday, Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah adjourned the session until Monday.

Sadiq also clarified that the PPP had submitted a resolution on the canals issue on April 7, and the matter was discussed in detail on the same day. However, another similar resolution was again submitted by the opposition on April 10.

Addressing the broader concerns raised by the opposition parties, the speaker continued, those who frequently spoke out on issues such as Palestine and border security often failed to show up when these matters were scheduled for debate in the house.

The National Assembly session started with Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in the chair. However, the sitting was interrupted when Iqbal Afridi of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) pointed out the lack of quorum. The session was suspended for 30 minutes, and later adjourned due to insufficient attendance.

Meanwhile, the energy ministry informed the house in a written reply that "thanks to the government's efforts", the circular debt declined by Rs9 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal year – from Rs2,393 billion in June 2024 to Rs2,384 billion in December

The energy ministry said that the recovery of power distribution companies (DISCOs) had improved. The ministry presented some aspects of the government's strategic roadmap for 2025-29, including initiatives to identify power losses, and real-time monitoring to pinpoint unauthorised consumption.

"In order to identify localities with high power losses, a computerised energy audit of distributors and transformers will be carried out," the response read. "An advanced metering infrastructure system will be implemented for real-time monitoring and loss assessment to identify unauthorised consumption."

The ministry said that this strategy required that all consumers had electricity meters, thus consumers without them would need to have them installed. "The strategy includes recovery action against defaulters who are permanently disconnected under the Land Revenue Act [and] and area bundle contractors will be installed in areas with high power theft," the energy ministry wrote.

The ministry added that under the government's strategy, tube wells would be solarised to reduce dependence on grid electricity and a recovery scheme would be introduced for local administrations and Discos to collect arrears.