Quorum crisis stalls National Assembly again

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly session was adjourned once again on Tuesday without taking up any business after the House failed to meet the required quorum, as the ruling coalition came under criticism from both the opposition and its own allies over repeated disruptions.

The sitting, chaired by Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah, ran into trouble shortly after the national anthem when PTI-backed independent MNA Iqbal Afridi pointed out the lack of quorum. Bells were rung to summon lawmakers, but the required number of members did not turn up.

The chair initially suspended proceedings for 15 minutes. However, when the House met again after about half an hour, the quorum was still incomplete, prompting the deputy speaker to adjourn the sitting until Wednesday.

Repeated disruptions in current session

Every sitting of the current National Assembly session, which began on May 11, has been interrupted because of a shortage of members in the House. In the 336-member assembly, the presence of 84 lawmakers is required to complete quorum.

The PML-N alone has 125 members, while the ruling coalition as a whole commands around 236 seats, giving it a two-thirds majority in the lower house. Despite that numerical strength, the government has repeatedly struggled to ensure enough attendance for proceedings to continue.

Tuesday was a private members’ day, and at least 20 private bills were listed on the agenda. None of them could be taken up because the sitting ended before any legislative business could begin.

A National Assembly official said each sitting costs the national exchequer around Rs24 million. Many lawmakers come to the House only to sign the attendance register in order to claim TA/DA and then leave for other engagements.

PPP lawmaker criticises treasury attendance

The brief and unproductive sitting also drew public criticism from within the treasury benches. PPP MNA Sharmila Farooqi, in a post on X, expressed frustration over the repeated collapse of proceedings and shared a photograph showing empty treasury seats. "Deeply frustrating to sit in the National Assembly day after day only to see the quorum repeatedly pointed out by the opposition because the treasury benches remain empty," she wrote.

Farooqi also said it was not the PPP’s responsibility to make up the numbers when "nearly 95 per cent of PML-N MNAs are absent."

She further said that despite attempts to move House business forward, the sessions were falling apart due to poor attendance and wasting millions of rupees of taxpayers’ money.

"As representatives travelling from across the country, including Karachi, we owe the nation a functioning Parliament, seriousness and accountability," she added in the same post.

Opposition warning preceded disruption

The latest adjournment came days after Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Mehmood Khan Achakzai warned the government that the opposition would not allow the House to function if its demands were not met.

On Friday, Achakzai had given the government until Monday to permit meetings with former prime minister Imran Khan and allow his medical treatment at a hospital of his choice. He had warned that if the government did not change its conduct within that period, it would be responsible if disorder broke out during proceedings and the House failed to function.

The repeated collapse of sittings has now added to pressure on the government to ensure attendance on treasury benches and allow the assembly to carry out its scheduled legislative work.