Senate session adjourned after PTI flagged a lack of quorum
ISLAMABAD: The Senate session on Friday was adjourned abruptly after an opposition lawmaker from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) pointed out quorum that was found to be lacking, a move that apparently denied the opposition senators to share their views on the floor of the House on the government’s allegedly controversial actions regarding former prime minister Imran Khan.
After what appeared to be a dramatic turn of events overnight surrounding Khan’s movement from Adiala Jail Rawalpindi to a hospital in Islamabad, the opposition senators were expected to attend the Senate session on Friday morning to record their protest against what they alleged were the non-implementation of the Supreme Court’s order to shift Khan to a private hospital.
However, contrary to expectations, PTI’s Mashal Azam, commonly known as Mashal Yousafzai, pointed out the quorum that was lacking, prompting Presiding Officer Manzoor Kakar to adjourn the session when the question hour was under way.
Chairman Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani and Deputy Chairman Senate Syedaal Khan did not attend the Senate session.
“You don’t let the House function,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, who was present in the session, told Yousafzai.
“You have not honoured the Supreme Court’s order,” she replied, before the session was adjourned till Monday.
“You people have been duped,” Kamran Murtaza from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) said to Yousafzai.
Later, reports suggested that opposition lawmakers including Leader of the Opposition in Senate Allama Raja Nasir Abbas expressed their displeasure to Yousafzai for contributing to the session’s abrupt adjournment.
Earlier on Tuesday, the parliamentary affairs minister had said in the Senate that the government would implement in “letter and spirit” the SC’s order to shift Khan to hospital for medical treatment.
“The PM has no powers of his own to get any prisoner out of jail—this power rests with the court—the government would implement the Supreme Court’s decision in letter and spirit,” he had said, referring to the apex court’s order to shift Khan to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, a written reply from Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja, shared in the Senate during question hour on Friday, suggested that Pakistan’s export remittances surged by 20.6 percent, reaching $4.6 billion during fiscal year 2025-26, compared to $3.8 billion achieved during the corresponding period in the previous FY 2024-25.
The reply came to a question posed by Samina Mumtaz Zehri from Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), who sought from the IT minister the details of Pakistan’s earnings from IT exports during the FY 2025-26.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026