The current session of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly has also become one of its longest sessions.

This is the fifth longest session of the assembly, which had begun on July 19, and once again fell victim to lack of interest from lawmakers.

Lack of quorum in the assembly has become almost routine and its sessions have been suspended three times for that reason.

Similarly, this session was also delayed four to five hours beyond the scheduled time due to lack of interest from members of the Provincial Assembly (MPA).

The leader of the house, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, has only managed to attend 11 or 12 meetings, while the leader of the opposition, Dr. Ibadullah has been absent from most of them.

Monday’s assembly session was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi. However, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Sobia Shahid pointed out the lack of quorum immediately after the recitation of the Holy Quran, after which the Deputy Speaker ordered the bells to be rung for two minutes.

The Assembly Clerk then counted the number of members present in the House. Only 27 turned out to be present, after which the chairman adjourned the session for a prayer break.

When the meeting resumed, the necessary number of members was still not present for the proceedings of the House to be conducted.

The Vice President then ordered the bells to be rung again. But even that did not result in the presence of the required number of members of the House.

As a result, the session of the Assembly was adjourned till Friday.

Sources told The Express Pakinomist that though the current assembly session had started on July 19, it was still ongoing.

Long breaks have been taken in this session and the Assembly has also completed its 100 days. Around 33 members of the assembly have also been suspended for not submitting their returns to the Election Commission, which has also reduced the number of members in the assembly.

Despite the occasional lack of quorum, some laws have been passed on the basis of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ votes, which the opposition has protested without success.

The sources further said that late start of assembly sessions had also become the norm. The time for the sessions in the winter is fixed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and in the summer from 9.30 for dinner, according to the rules.

The speaker may also change the timing of the assembly session at his discretion. However, the other two rules are said to be disregarded and the sessions are conducted only based on the will of the speaker.

The sources also claimed that the amendment to the rules of the assembly was made regarding the Speaker at a time when duties of police personnel in the province were mostly assigned to educational institutions at the peak of terrorism.

The rules of the assembly were changed so that the speaker could change the time of the assembly meetings whenever they wanted due to lack of police personnel.