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The newly-appointed coalition government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif failed to run the first sitting of the Pakistan National Assembly on Tuesday, due to the lack of quorum. The house was adjourned five minutes after Holy Quran recitation, playing of the national anthem, and approval of leave applications.
During the meeting, only 25-30 members including two federal ministers, were present in the 342-member lower house of the parliament. The Acting Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani adjourn the house without taking up the 182-point heavy agenda on the private member's day, reported the Dawn newspaper. The next sitting will be conducted again on Friday, which is also the last sitting of the current session of the assembly as decided by the House Business Advisory Committee. The lone Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) member in the assembly, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali pointed out the absence of the ministers and the treasury members from the house and called it an insult to the house. "What kind of scenes are we watching?" he said while pointing towards the empty treasury benches. "There was a great enthusiasm when you people were bringing the no-confidence motion against the then prime minister Imran Khan. Where has that passion gone now?" quoted the Dawn newspaper. Earlier, on March 13 also, the house was adjourned even without completing the question hour, due to the lack of quorum. The Acting speaker Durrani and his deputy, before adjourning the house had urged the members of the parliament to attend the house proceedings. He said that he would not allow the proceedings to run on the pattern of the previous three years under the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government. This is the first regular session of the National Assembly under the coalition government of PM Shehbaz Sharif but the lower house of the parliament has run without the opposition leader since the beginning of the current session on May 10. This comes after the mass resignation of 123 PTI leaders following the success of a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan. The report said that since there have not been any important discussions yet, the speaker Raja Pervaiz has been running the house allowing the members to deliver lengthy speeches and speak on issues of their choice on points of order, the Dawn reported. The National Assembly is expected to go into the budget session in the first week of June and Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is yet to verify the resignations of PTI lawmakers, who decided to quit the assembly last month after Sharif took over the charge of prime minister office. (ANI)
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