LAHORE - The government has finally decided to bring in bureaucracy to address the longstanding issue of lack of quorum in the Punjab Assembly.

For this purpose, the government has set up Punjab Chief Secretary’s camp office in the Assembly to address the grievances of lawmakers.

The head of provincial bureaucracy would spend some time in the Assembly whenever it is in session. In the absence of the Chief Secretary, his staff will help facilitate the members.

Also, the Conference Room in the Assembly has been declared a camp office for the Administrative Scretaries. Before this, the room was being used as a place of sitting for the members.

Now, the Aministrative Secretaries would sit in this room alongwith the members to streamline their problems relating to their constituencies.  

The decision has been taken after thorough investigation which revealed that majority of the lawmakers would skip the Assembly sittings to get their works done in different departments. Many were also found marking their attendance after the adjournment of sittings on return from government offices.

This had created a strange paradox as the sittings were being adjourned due to lack of quorum while the attendance register would show presence of over 150 members every day.

In their private conversations, some lawmakers had also advocated holding of evening sessions so that they could spend the day in the Civil Secretariat.

Hopefully, the incentive will work because in the new situation the legislators will not be in a hurry to leave the House to visit government departments.

It is, however, yet to be been seen how the bureaucracy reacts to this move from the Punjab legislature though it has the backing of the Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif  without whose consent this would not have been possible. There is a possibility the civil officers don’t take kindly to their being in the Assembly leaving aside their important business. 

The bureaucrats may also complain about being constantly doorstepped by the media persons also. They are found in abundance there during the Assembly sessions. 

Previously, the Punjab government was also considering setting up of salons inside the Assembly to overcome the persistent problem of maintaining quorum in the House. It had the information that women legislators were always in a hurry to leave the Assembly only to reach the beauty salons to get ready for the weddings and evening parties.

After yesterday’s development, the government seems to have dropped the idea of providing this facility to the women lawmakers at their doorsteps.