Absence of ministers: Senate loses quorum after members walk out

The government's failure to maintain quorum compelled the presiding officer on Saturday to adjourn the proceedings of Senate without taking up any agenda item after senators of coalition parties joined the walkout of opposition against persistent absence of the ministers.
Zafrul Haq of PML (N) and Khurshid Ahmed of JI led the opposition walkout, protesting that ministers were not attending Senate session, and this had become a routine. Awami National Party (ANP) members and some senators of PML-Q--coalition partners--also joined the opposition, which created problem for the ruling party to maintain minimum number required for proceedings. As a result, the session was adjourned, to meet on Tuesday, to take up questions deferred due to the absence of ministers.
Talking to media after adjournment of the House, Wali Muhamad Badeni regretted that the ministers rarely attend Senate session, whereas they regularly attend the sessions of the National Assembly. There was no one (concerned ministers) in the Senate to respond to the questions of the members to get government replies on important issues concerning common man.
Abbas Khan Afridi, independent senator from FATA, also regretted that ministers prefer official and personal work on legislation. He said that representing the federation was their least priority. Gul Naseeb of JUI said that in his opinion the government was not giving priority to the parliamentary system for quite some time and has been paying more attention on backdoor activities to settle matters. He said the government itself was weakening the parliamentary system which should have been its strength.
Senator Khurshid expressed similar views and regretted that ministers were not present to respond to the questions during the question hour. He said that this had been going on for quite some time and it had become unbearable for the members when the Finance Minister Dr Abdu Hafeez Sheikh was not present to even respond to deferred question about his ministry.
Khurshid said that the government does not miss any opportunity and harps the tune on supremacy of parliament, while on the other hand it had been doing its negation. He said that he had not seen such an incompetent government during his whole life and the present setup "is the biggest failure in the history of the country". He said that the ministers do not show any interest and the affairs of the country are moving from bad to worse.
Zafarul Haq said that the present government has created a mess in the economy that no one would be able to clear after coming into power. He said that all the state owned enterprises (SOEs) are in such a bad shape that no one would be able to fix them if the government leaves them as it is. He said no one else but the government itself is responsible for the current crisis.
Communication Minister Alamgir Khan said that no one could justify ministers' absence from the Senate but as far as parliamentary business was concerned, he (Alamgir) and leader of the House were present to give answer during the question hour session. He said that Minister for SAFRON was also present in the House but it was democratic right of the opposition to point out quorum and stage a walkout in the protest on the issue.
About the ongoing controversy over memogate, neither there is any tension in the government over memo issue nor government wants. He said that there is solution of all the problems in the Constitution and all the forces are required to remain within the parameters of Constitution because democracy was achieved after great sacrifices by all political parties. He also advised the opposition to demonstrate some tolerance and wait for their turn patiently.