ISLAMABAD - The elections for Senate’s top slots had a visible impact on the National Assembly proceedings as the lower house of parliament could not take up a single agenda item on Monday.

The house with the onset of proceedings saw very thin presence of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as many of them were found witnessing the elections of chairman/deputy chairman Senate.

PTI MNA Shireen Mazari with the start of proceedings pointed out lack of required quorum in the house.

“This is mere a joke with the National Assembly,” said Mazari and pointed out a large number of MNAs and ministers from treasury benches were absent. “The quorum issue has frequently happened in the current government era, which can also be mentioned in the Guinness book,” she remarked but it could not become part proceedings as her mic was off.

Speaker National Assembly Ayaz, before asking for headcount in the house, remarked that four ministers to respond the queries of opposition are present in the house. The chair suspended the house as not more than thirty lawmakers were present in the house. The 342-member lower house of the parliament required at least 86 lawmakers to complete the quorum.

The MNAs including Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Minister for SAFRON Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman, PTI’s Hamid ul Haq and other were seen sitting to watch the elections of Senate chairman and deputy chairman.

The house once again resumed after half-an-hour but required strength was not present in the house. The chair abruptly adjourned the house due to lack of required quorum.

JAVAID-UR-RAHMAN