Continued absence of ministers: Senate adjourns proceedings in protest

The Upper House of parliament was adjourned Thursday in protest against continued absence of ministers, describing their absence as non- justified behaviour and disrespectful to the parliament. Deputy Chairman Senate Jan Muhammad Jamali, taking note of ministers' absence during proceedings of the house, especially in question hour session, remarked that he is going to adjourn the proceedings for 10 minutes in protest to uphold prestige of Senate.
The questions, placed before the house, were mostly related to cabinet and finance divisions, but the ministers concerned were not seen in the house, which infuriated the members. Zahid Khan, a senator of Awami National Party (ANP) said that ministers' absence on regular basis reflects they (ministers) are not serious about proceedings of upper house. The written replies to the questions, placed before the house, he added, were not satisfactory rather sometimes out of context.
After ten minutes adjournment, the house resumed its proceedings again, with Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi in the chair, but not even a single concerned minister turned up to the house. Leader of the house Nayyar Bukhari requested the chair to defer the questions for next session. This prompted Senator Ishaq Dar of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), who stood up from his seat in protest, saying that he had never observed such an attitude of the cabinet members. "The attitude of ministers, shows Senate is a redundant body...we must take up the issue with the prime minister", he added.
Colonel Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Retd) said we appreciate the ministers, who attend the proceedings and give importance to the house but those who often remain absent were creating problems for the government. He directed leader of the house and chief whip to ensure presence of ministers next time.
Meanwhile, the Senators termed two weekly holidays a great loss to economy and called for reviewing the cabinet decision in this regard. Speaking on a point of order, Ilyas Bilour of ANP said that people and business community are badly suffering due to two-holidays and the country's economy could not afford such a decision. He said that he had submitted a call attention notice over the issue but it was not included in agenda. The house should be informed that how much electricity has been saved so far due to two weekly holidays, he added.
Leader of the House Nayyar Bukhari said that the call attention was not included in the agenda as minister for water and power in out of country and taking up a call attention in absence of the concerned minister would be of no use. Wasim Sajjad of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) said that decision of two-weekly holidays is being taken up, keeping in view the economic situation of any country and our economic situation does not allow us to take two weekly holidays.