LAHORE - The Punjab Assembly yesterday witnessed another disappointing day when the house proceedings could not continue for more than 22 minutes for lack of quorum.

The 32nd session of the Punjab Assembly was already late by two hours. Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan waited for over an hour to see the presence of minimum number of 93 members, being requirement of quorum. When the required number of legislators did not turn up, the speaker adjourned the session till Friday at 9am.

Earlier, during the brief proceedings in the question-hour, nothing substantial could come about as the house could deal with only two questions relating to colonies department, while no answer was received to the 20 others queries put by the members on various dates from September 2013 to April 2017.

The members on both sides of the aisle expressed fury over the attitude of the department and the absence of the secretaries and ministers concerned.

The Chair taking a serious notice took back all questions on the said department and handed them over to the Standing Committee concerned with a direction to the Parliamentary Secretary of the department for referring the matter to Chief Secretary. The Chair wanted to remind the Chief Secretary of the ruling of the Assembly that every department has to necessarily send reply from the assembly with three months on receipt of the same. The Chair also expressed a deep disappointment and distress over this conduct of the department.

Opposition Leader Mian Mahmoodur Rashid taking the floor termed no response to the House question by the department, a sheer insult of the Assembly. He also vented fury over the absence of the Ministers in the House and said, the Ministers would also have developed the knack of regularly attending the session if the Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif too had visited the Assembly at least once a week.

The JI Member, Dr Waseem Akhtar also lambasted at the Colonies department and said, the department is drenched in corruption which would have been exposed in the House had answers been sent.

Provincial Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran also subscribed to the views of the Opposition members and said, the House belongs to everyone and not to a particular person.

The Parliamentary Secretary Colonies Ch Zahid Akram said he sent back the answers to the Department since he was not satisfied with them. The Opposition side did not agree with the PS and said his statement purport saving face of the department. At this stage, Ahsan Riaz Fatyana pointed out lack of quorum which was found far below the minimum strength. The proceedings were suspended for an hour to let the house meet the required number of 93 members, but to no avail. The house was, therefore, adjourned to next day.

It may be mentioned that the PA session on the first day on Monday could last only for 10 minutes that too were taken by recitation from the Quran and Naat.