Ministers’ continuous absence: NA Deputy Speaker says letter written to PM

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah said that we have written a letter with the consent of the opposition and treasury members to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif regarding continuous absence of the ministers from the House.

The lawmakers belonging to both the treasury and opposition have been continuously protesting for the last three days and have voiced their concern over the absence of the ministers during the question hour.

The deputy speaker has to suspend the house for half an hour due to the absence of the ministers and parliamentary secretaries in question hour session.

When, the question hour session was started, there were no ministers in the house to respond to the supplementary questions of the members.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Shah said that yesterday, we wrote a letter to the prime minister with the consent of treasury and opposition members to the prime minister on the absence of the ministers. “The letter has been delivered to the Prime Minister’s Office, expressing the House’s displeasure at the ministers’ absence during proceedings. We will not allow the House to function in this manner,” he said.

“Today, the ministers are not present in the house to reply to the members. If the ministers are not going to come to the house then we will adjourn the house,” he said.

Announcing a short break, the deputy speaker said, “We will take a 10-minute recess. If the ministers do not attend the session, we will adjourn the proceedings of the House.”

Afterward, the deputy speaker suspended the house for 10 minutes. But the house met again after half an hour.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024