Daily Times

The Punjab Assembly marked a rare scene of adjournment of session on Monday, and failed to take up a single item on agenda due to lack of quorum.

The session was adjourned till Tuesday after the treasury failed to ensure the presence of the required number of legislators in the House, since even the bells ringing for five minutes, followed by a15 minute break couldn’t bring the MPA’s to the house.

Unlike the usual routine of almost two hours of delays, the session started only 20 minutes behind the scheduled time with Speaker Ch Parvez Elahi in the chair. After recitation from the Holy Quran and Naat, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz legislator Khalil Tahir Sindhu pointed quorum. As there were only three legislators in the House, the chair directed to ring the bells for five minutes for legislators’ attention.

However, as the quorum remained incomplete even after five minutes, the chair therefore announced a 15 minutes break. On counting after 15 minutes break, only 10 lawmakers could make it to the House, which included four from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf and three each from its coalition partner Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and the Opposition party the PML-N.

After the speaker realised that there remained little chances of getting the required number of legislators in the House, the chair adjourned the session till Tuesday afternoon.