Quorum issue in NA continues to haunt govt

ISLAMABAD: The absence of ministers and failure to maintain quorum continued to haunt the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in the National Assembly on Friday as the session was adjourned till Monday after short proceedings due to lack of quorum.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and other opposition parties staged a walk out from the National Assembly in a protest against the absence of Minister for Water Division to reply the call attention notice of the PPP legislators who raised an issue regarding 36 percent shortage of water as announced by the Technical Committee of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa).

Just after the walkout from the house, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislator Dr Shireen Mazari pointed out the quorum and the House proceedings were suspended. The proceedings resumed after 30 minutes, but due to lack of the quorum the proceedings were adjourned till Monday.

Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Muhammad Afzal Khan Dandla told the House that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has undertaken to plant 10 times more trees in replacement of those to be cut during execution of any developmental project.

He was responding to a call attention notice by Naeema Kishwar Khan, Surriya Asghar, Zahra Wadood Fatemi, Kiran Haider and others who invited attention towards cutting of 30-40 years old trees to widen roads in Islamabad.

The parliamentary secretary said 193 trees were cut during expansion of Embassy Road as per master plan of the capital. “So far the CDA has planted two hundred trees in replacement and in all it would plant 2,450 trees,” he added. He said the CDA has no machinery to transplant big trees.