Quorum issues: Sana cries foul over opposition’s attitude

Assembly adjourned before discussion on sugar, fertiliser issues.

LAHORE: Law Minister Rana Sanaullah pleaded to the opposition not to point out the quorum when the Punjab Assembly is handling non legislative issues, after discussions on fertiliser supply and sugarcane farmers were postponed because there were not enough members in the house on Monday.

The session began almost an hour late, at around 3:52pm. After Question Hour on the Cooperatives Department, handled by Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran, Khadija Umar of the PML-Quaid rose to point out the quorum. However, there were enough MPAs present for the sitting to continue.

Sanaullah, who as law minister is responsible for ensuring that enough MPAs attend sessions to maintain quorum, asked the opposition to respect House traditions. “It is a tradition of the House that quorum is not pointed out when call-attention notices, adjournment motions or privilege motions of human interest are tabled,” he said. “It is the opposition’s right to do so during the tabling of government business or legislation.”

He said that he had called the food secretary and the cane commissioner to the assembly on Monday to discuss the problems faced by sugarcane farmers and fertiliser availability. “The opposition has a one-point agenda: don’t let the House run smoothly. You have forgotten the traditions of the House,” he said. Ehsanul Haq Ahsan Nolatia of the PPP accused the treasury of hypocrisy. “When the opposition neglects traditions, Sanaullah cries, but when he violates the traditions or even the rules, no one from the treasury benches points that out,” he said.

He said when the law minister was asked a question he could not answer, he would signal his colleagues to start shouting and thumping desks. He said that the sessions often started two or three hours behind the scheduled time.

Sanaullah asked Speaker Rana Iqbal to postpone adjournment motions and privilege motions till Tuesday so the House could discuss the two important issues.

PPP MPA Ather Khan Gorchani rose at this point and asked the speaker to let him talk about the death of a schoolboy in an accident in Jampur, Rajanpur district, three days ago. He said that the boy was one of several schoolchildren that the local administration had gathered at the site of a ‘model village’ that was to be inaugurated by MPA Sher Ali of the PML-N three days ago.

The speaker did not allow Gorchani to continue, prompting a PPP walkout. Amir Sultan Cheema of the PML-Q then pointed out the quorum, which was clearly below the required level, at which point Sanaullah signalled to the treasury benches to leave the hall.

The session is due to resume at 10am today. The government was supposed to present the Annual Report of the Punjab Ombudsman for 2010 and the Bank of Punjab Amendment Ordinance 2011 on Tuesday, and table the Punjab Government Servants Housing Foundation Amendment Bill 2011, but was unable to do so before the session was adjourned.

Earlier, before the question hour, Sanaullah and Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz spent several minutes trading insults about the leaders of each other’s parties. Riaz said on a point of order that President Asif Ali Zardari had returned to Pakistan and “all palmists and forecasters” should stop predicting his ouster. He said Zardari had returned because he was a patriot who would live and die in this country, as opposed to the Sharif family, which had fled to Saudi Arabia after the 1999 coup.

Sanaullah replied that Zardari had done a deal with intelligence agencies to secure his release from prison, under which he had moved to New York to live a life of luxury. He said that he prayed to God that Zardari recover from his “political, health and moral illness”.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2011.