Missing ministers: Walkout prompts adjournment of Senate session

16 senators protest against the repeated absence of ministers from the question hour.

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate was again reduced to a park track on Saturday, as walking rather than legislating was the main business of the day.

Sixteen senators staged a walkout from the session, which only lasted half an hour, prompting acting chairman Jan Muhammad Jamali to highlight, with great displeasure, the absence of ministers.

Jamali asked the prime minister to ensure that cabinet members were present during the question hour of the upper house of parliament. He even stated that the absence of ministers from the session was violation of the constitution.

The frequent problem has been raised several times in the house by senators from all political sides. “The issue was even brought to the notice of the prime minister,” Jamali said, recalling that the prime minister had assured the house that he would personally see that ministers attended the question hour. Jamali went on to express his regret that this had evidently not happened.

Earlier, the session started an hour late at 11am. The quorum of 25 was only just complete, with 27 senators present in the house. Two of them, Wali Muhammad Baadini and Simi Siddique from the treasury benches, protested against the absence of ministers from the proceedings.

The senators walked out and were followed later by all members of opposition, after an announcement from Raja Zafarul Haq from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

“There is a battalion of ministers – but none of them is present here to respond to our queries,” said Zafarul Haq. He demanded the acting chairman pass a ruling that the prime minister attend the Senate session and ensure that his cabinet members also did the same.

ANP Senator Zahid Khan demanded that the salaries of the ministers be withheld due to their repeated absence from the question hour. “It’s the height of irresponsibility that despite clear instructions from the prime minister, his cabinet members do not attend the session,” said Senator Professor Khursheed Ahmed of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Following the walkout from the house by some senators, Zahid Khan pointed to the lack of quorum, forcing the acting chairman to adjourn the session till Tuesday.

Due to the adjournment, the question-answer session was obviously scrapped, and discussion on the reported tax refund fraud of Rs10.40 billion on a calling attention notice was also postponed.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2011.