Quorum crisis: MPAs rush through questions in brief Punjab Assembly session.

LAHORE -- A thinly-attended Punjab Assembly session was less than an hour's affair on Friday during which the House quickly ran through the Question Hour.

The proceedings started around 10.40am - some 100 minutes late than the announced schedule - with hardly two dozen members gracing the House. In the absence of Speaker Pervaiz Elahi and his deputy Dost Muhammad Mazari, the responsibility fell on Panel of Chairmen member Mian Muhammad Shafi.

The Question Hour which normally includes 17 questions, had 23 on Friday but the House was able to ran through all of these as 11 out of those were disposed of because the member concerned was not in the House. Another two were deferred as the members were absent but they had sent their requests for postponement.

The House was thus left with only 10 questions to deliberate upon. The quick winding up was also helped by Taimur Ahmad Lalli, parliamentary secretary for Auqaf and Religious Affairs, who termed every follow-up question a fresh inquiry - warranting new question - and helped keep proceedings brief.

Mr Lalli was duly helped by the Chair which kept praising him for being well-prepared. It created an interesting situation when the Opposition was accusing him of being ill-prepared and shirking their supplementary questions but the Chair thought otherwise. The situation denigrated when the opposition in its rage pointed out quorum.

The quorum that was waiting to be pointed out was a foregone conclusion because the Treasury never had more than four dozen members against the requirement of 93.

Five-minute bells did not help and the Chair had to adjourn the House for Monday afternoon.

The...

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