Skip to main content

Senate adjourned without doing business due to lack of quorum

ISLAMABAD: The Senate was adjourned to meet again on Monday in around five minutes after commencement, without transacting any business. The reason was once again lack of quorum or in other words lack of interest in the proceedings by members of the House.



As the session of the House resumed after a two-day break immediately after the recitation from the Holy Quran, lack of quorum was pointed out by Kamil Ali Agha of PML-Q, forcing the chair to adjourn the House till Monday afternoon.



PPP Senator Rubina Khalid presided over the brief sitting. After the quorum was pointed out, the count was made and the House was found not in order.



Senator Muhammad Tahir Bizenjo of the National Party after the recitation of the Holy Quran, interjected the chair to allow him to take the floor to discuss the matter of Balochistan rights’ activists. However, due to the lack of quorum, he was not allowed to proceed.



Presiding Officer Senator Rubina Khalid of PPP asked the Senator to remain patient till the head count and promised he would be allowed to speak after the exercise. Some other lawmakers also wanted to discuss important issues and continuation of the House, but since lack of quorum was pointed out, it was not technically possible.




NP, JI senators seek discussion on issue of missing persons, extrajudicial killings
in Balochistan




According to the Senate Secretariat, 73 lawmakers were absent from the House while 24 were present. At present, three seats are vacant, one of which fell vacant after care-taker PM Anwaarul Haq resigned as a senator.



Two other seats became vacant following resignation by Shaukat Tareen and passing away of Rana Maqbool Ahmad. The order of the day included introduction of some bills as well as laying of ordinances.



On the first day of the new session on Tuesday, the members had barred the caretaker government from laying bills and ordinances, saying with less than two months in elections, what was the urgency in transacting such business by a caretaker set-up.



The chair had to adjourn the House till Friday morning, whereas the sitting time was changed to afternoon the same day.



Talking to reporters outside the Parliament House later, National Party Senator Tahir Bizenjo and Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmad called for a discussion in the Senate on the situation in Balochistan.



Senator Ahmad said that for two days, the Senate session was adjourned as soon as it started. The issue of missing persons, extrajudicial killings and death squads in Balochistan was very serious but it was not being allowed to be discussed on the floor of the House, he said.



Lawmaker Tahir Bizenjo also demanded that the overall situation in Balochistan be discussed on Monday.



Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2023


http://dlvr.it/T0m09n

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pragmatic steps taken to implement Axle Load Control regime on NH&MP

Islamabad: Ministry of Communications has taken pragmatic steps to implement the Axle Load Control regime on Motorways & National Highways in the country. Sole objective of this move is to control travelling of overloaded vehicles which lead to fatal accidents besides damaging the national asset of road network of billions of rupees.Prior to implementation of axle load control regime, a technical committee was formed, consisting of officers from Ministry of Communications and National Highway Authority which remained in constant contacts with transport community, Members of the Chambers of Commerce and stakeholders hailing from all the provinces. This technical committee visited their offices and held detailed discussions in series of meetings and took them into confidence to facilitate implementation of Axle Load Control regime. The stakeholders assured of their full cooperation and subsequently, implementation of Axle Load Control was realized which is in progress.It is worth to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

CJP questions how ‘clarification order’ made it to website

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa has raised nine questions in a letter to the Supreme Court’s registrar, seeking clarification on how a Sept 14 clarification order was uploaded to the top court’s website. The Sept 14 order, issued by eight judges led by senior puisne judge Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for failing to implement the Supreme Court’s July 12 judgement, which declared the PTI eligible for reserved seats in parliament. In his letter dated Sept 21, the CJP wondered who directed the uploading of the Sept 14 clarification order on the Supreme Court’s website. His inquiry followed a note from the Deputy Registrar (Judicial), who flagged the issue of the order’s appearance on the website. The note questioned how the order was uploaded when no cause list had been issued, no notices had been sent to the parties, and the order had not been received by the deputy registrar’s office until 8pm on the...
Post a Comment
Read more

UN awards 2 Pakistani female peacekeepers for gender advocacy

The United Nations has awarded two Pakistani female peacekeepers with the Gender Advocacy Award for their “outstanding performance”, a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. In a statement issued on Thursday, the ISPR said the awards were presented to Major Sania Safdar, part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Cyprus, and Major Komal Masood, who served in the Central African Republic, “for their outstanding performance and commitment in promoting the ideals of UN”. The accolades were presented by the under-secretary general in the UN’s Department for Peace Operations at its New York headquarters. “While serving in [an] international environment, both officers demonstrated exceptional professionalism [and] dedication,” the ISPR noted. It added that the two peacekeepers “made [a] significant contribution to Mission’s Peace and Stability efforts, especially with regards to advancing women’s meaningful participation in Peacekeeping Operations within the ...
Post a Comment
Read more