KP Assembly session again adjourned for lack of quorum

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s session was again adjourned at the middle of its business on Monday due to lack of quorum, exposing lack of interest of treasury benches in the government requisitioned session.

This is for the third time that the provincial assembly session was adjourned during the last 10 days when the opposition members pointed out the quorum at a time when the ruling party members wanted to participate in the ongoing debate about PTI protest at Islamabad D-Chowk.

In the House, the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf enjoys two-thirds majority with 93 members (58 PTI and 35) independents who were also affiliated with the PTI but declared as independents by Election Commission of Pakistan.

The combined opposition has the strength of 27 members including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl nine each, Pakistan People’s Party 5 MPAs, Awami National Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Parliamentarian two each. Twenty-five members on reserved seats including 21 women and four minority MPAs are yet to be elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

The current Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session is one of the longest sessions in the parliamentary history of the province that was convened on July 19 and according to the provincial assembly record during the last 130 days (about four and half months) the assembly business was done only for 46 days.

Instead of focusing on legislation and other provincial assembly matters and governance issues, the ruling party used the assembly floor for debates followed by PTI protest rallies in Islamabad and Lahore.

After the recent PTI rally at Islamabad D-Chowk on November 26, the provincial assembly session was convened at 9pm on November 28.

An official of provincial assembly secretariat told this scribe that a single day of the assembly cost about Rs1.6 million a day during the session including allowances to the provincial assembly employees. Dozens of police and other law-enforcement agencies are deployed inside and outside the assembly building during the session.

Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl lawmaker Rehana Ismael pointed out the lack of quorum at a time when provincial Minister Suhail Afridi started speaking about the D-Chowk protest in Islamabad. He claimed that peaceful protesters were fired upon and teargassed on November 26.

Deputy Speaker Suriyya Bibi, who was in the chair, ordered to stop the assembly business for some minutes and when the quorum remained insufficient she adjourned the assembly session till Tuesday afternoon (December 10).

Earlier, provincial minister tabled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Registration of Brick-Kiln Bill 2024 in the assembly. If passed the existing brick-kiln have to register within 120 days while a new one has to get no-objection certificate.