Punjab Assembly: Session wrapped up after 20 minutes

‘Treasury MPAs left assembly to attend prize distribution ceremony with CM’.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Assembly stayed in session for just 20 minutes on Tuesday, with a member of the treasury benches pointing out the lack of quorum shortly after proceedings began at noon.

The treasury MPAs hurried away from the building after the adjournment, headed for the Alhamra Cultural Complex in Gaddafi Stadium, where Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was chief guest at the ‘Toppers’ Convention 2012’.

Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz, speaking to reporters, claimed that the chief minister had ordered all treasury MPAs to attend the event, and that was why Tuesday’s proceedings had been so brief. An assembly session costs on average Rs12.5 million a day, Riaz said.

Law Minister Rana Sanauallah was unavailable for comment. Parliamentary Law Secretary Tahir Khalil Sindhu said that he had been “surprised” when his PML-Nawaz colleague Shagufta Sheikh rose to point out the lack of quorum at around 12.18pm, just as question hour concerning the Schools Education Department was about to begin.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal appeared to bend the rules in his handling of the quorum request as well. Assembly rules dictate that when a lack of quorum is pointed out, the speaker must ring the bells for five minutes to summon MPAs to the hall. If the quorum is still incomplete, the speaker must adjourn the sitting for 15 minutes and then reconvene to assess the quorum again. But the speaker adjourned proceedings for the day immediately after the ringing of the bells.



Further, Tuesdays are private members’ days, when opposition MPAs get the chance to criticise government policy and propose their own bills. It is a tradition for neither the opposition nor the treasury to point out the lack of quorum on private members’ days.

Bent the rules

Addressing reporters at the steps to the assembly building, Raja Riaz lashed out at the chief minister, saying he had instructed MPAs to ensure their presence at the event at Alhamra.

Instead of wasting public money in meaningless sessions, the chief minister should just close the assembly building, he said. He said that the speaker had bent the rules because the chief minister had asked him to join the prize distribution ceremony. Education Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman and Schools Education Secretary Aslam Kamboh had also been told to attend the ceremony, rendering question hour about the Schools Education Department pointless in their absence.

Riaz said that the chief minister was always talking about finishing development projects quickly, but he had completely ignored the construction of the Punjab Assembly building. The building was supposed to have been finished three years ago, but was still incomplete, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2012.