KP Assembly proceedings adjourned for lack of quorum

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s sitting was adjourned without doing any business on Friday due to lack of quorum as there were only a dozen members in the House.

Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan, who presided over the session, had to adjourn the sitting till Monday when MPA Baserat Khan of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) pointed out the lack of quorum.

Earlier during the question hour all the 10 questions lapsed when the session started at 10:15 am as the lawmakers were not present.

The identical adjournment motion of Inayatullah Khan, Sirajuddin and Humaira Khatoon of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Waqar Ahmad Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP) also lapsed because of the absence of the movers.

The deputy speaker clarified that Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani on a complaint from opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani about the constant absence of the members from the House had ruled on November 22, 2021 to mark as absent all those coming late .

He said he (the deputy speaker) followed that ruling to which the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) lawmaker Nameea Kishwar objected.

The deputy speaker said he would not bow before any pressure or accept dictates but would run the assembly business as per the set rules.

He said it was the responsibility of the treasury and opposition benches to maintain the quorum and being the speaker the Chair had to start the proceedings on time.

He adjourned the session for five minutes due to the lack of quorum. On resuming the sitting when only nine members were present and the Chair ordered the ringing of the bells for two minutes. After two minutes, the number of the legislators rose to 12 and bells ringing were ordered for another two minutes but the number of lawmakers could reach 13 only. This prompted the Chair to adjourn the session till January 10 at 2pm.