LAHORE - The Punjab Assembly on Monday failed to hold a pre-budget debate for the fifth consecutive sitting due to a lack of quorum.
Under the rules, the House must hold pre-budget discussion for at least four days before preparation of the annual budget. Though the government had initially planned to prorogue the session after the Senate elections, but later it decided to extend it to meet the requirement.
This pre-budget debate has been on the agenda of Assembly business since March 2, but the lack of quorum has prevented the discussion to take place since the last five sittings.
On Monday, the House visibly lacked the quorum throughout the proceedings, which lasted only for an hour and 15 minutes. Only 10 MPAs were present at the outset while 14 were there to witness the adjournment.
Besides completion of the question hour, the House granted two-month extension to the Public Accounts Committee-I and the Standing Committee on Transport for presentation of their respective reports.
The Standing Committee on Law and Justice also presented its report on the Code of Civil Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2018 in the House before its adjournment till Wednesday.
Only seven out of 14 questions were answered during the question hour while seven were disposed of due to absence of the concerned legislators. Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal had to defer two Calling Attention Notices on the request of the government. The House will meet again on Wednesday at 10am.