LAHORE - The opposition staged a walkout from the Punjab Assembly yesterday following exchange of heated arguments with the chair over the issue of quorum.
As the chair declared that the quorum was complete, the opposition legislators stood up in protest, asserting the House lacked quorum and as such proceedings could not be continued. They started chanting slogans against the speaker and the ruling party. The chair, however, continued proceedings amid complete chaos that caused the opposition to come out of the House in protest.
Earlier, the proceedings started one hour and 10 minutes beyond the scheduled time with Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal in the chair. PTI MPA Mian Aslam Iqbal pointed out quorum soon after start of the proceedings during question-hour on Housing and Urban Development Department. The chair adjourned the proceedings first for five minutes and then for 20 minutes. The proceedings, however, started after one hour. Mian Aslam again pointed out quorum. On this, the speaker asked for the counting and declared the quorum was complete. Vocal opposition legislator argued that the quorum was incomplete and as such proceedings could not be continued. He said that only 87 and not 93 members were in the House. Annoyed speaker gave a ‘shut up’ call to Mian Aslam, saying the quorum was complete and as such the proceedings would continue. Rana Iqbal observed that it was the prerogative of the speaker to continue the proceedings when he was told the quorum was complete. The remarks of the speaker made the opposition members furious and they stood up and started chanting slogans against the chair and the ruling party leadership.
“Today, You set a wrong tradition of continuing proceedings even with incomplete quorum,” another PTI MPA Arif Abbasi told the chair. The speaker, however, snubbed the opposition MPAs, saying the authority of the chair could not be challenged. On this, the opposition members staged a walkout from the House.
As the opposition stayed away from the proceedings during question-hour, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Haroon Sultan gave answers of different queries.
PTI’s Arif Abbasi, however, came back to the House to perform the ritual of pointing quorum for the third time when finance minister Aisha Ghaus Pasha opened the pre-budget debate but this time the counting crossed 100.
Ms Aisha said the education, health, law and order and agriculture sectors would be priorities of the govt for budgetary allocations. Declaring the impression of suggestions from public representatives could not be considered in formulation of budget as baseless, Aisha invited the opposition and government MPAs to come forward with their recommendations for making the budget people-friendly. She said more than 100 MPAs actively took part in pre-budget session in 2016 and their suggestions were honoured. The chair adjourned the session till Thursday (today) at 10am.