The 33rd session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) got off to a bad start on Thursday. The speaker, upset at the absence of the ministers concerned, announced that there would be no session on Friday (today) if ministers did not show up.
Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman was the only minister who was present in the House.
He, too, left soon after answering members’ questions regarding the School and Education Department.
The Thursday session started at 4:35pm, an hour and a half later than its scheduled time of 3pm with Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood in the chair.
Opposition members lost patience with the treasury benches when Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Khalil Tahir Sindhu started to answer several call attention notices.
PPP’s Ehsanul Haq Nolatia said that according to the Rules of Procedure, only the chief minister or ministers could reply to call attention notices.
He said that Sindhu, being a parliamentary secretary, could not reply to call attention notices.
“The law minister usually fills in for the chief minister but he is absent. There are no other ministers present either,” Nolatia pointed out.
PML-Q’s Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan said that chair should keep the notices pending until Monday.
He criticised the chief minister for taking charge of several ministries. He said there were no ministers left in the cabinet.
At this Rana Mashhood Khan, the chair, said that Sindhu had also said that the notices would be taken up on Monday.
However, Ehsanul Haq Nolatia objected to the deputy speaker’s ruling, “Don’t flout the rules of procedure,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate that not even one of the 39 ministers that should make up the cabinet is present in the House,” remarked Chaudhry Zaheeruddin.
It was at this point that Mashhood warned that there would be no session on Friday if ministers were absent.
Afterwards, PPP parliamentary leader Major (retd) Zulfiqar Gondal tried to discuss the appearance of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani before the Supreme Court but Mashhood did not allow him.
Several members of the House also expressed their annoyance after the chair as well as the education minister failed to name the provincial sports minister.
PML-Q’s Sameena Khawar Hayat then pointed out the quorum after which the session was adjourned till 9am on Friday (today).
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2012.
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why v should take care of this assembly coz we have NA to play with.