The government on Wednesday failed to ensure quorum in the National Assembly for the third straight day, forcing the chair to adjourn the sitting without taking up any agenda item.

As soon as the house resumed the sitting with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker, Riazul Haq, pointed out the quorum at the outset, when the chair was about to take the question hour.

“Mr Speaker! I would like to point out the quorum in protest against the continued supressing and neglecting the voice of members National Assembly from Sahiwal Division who have been trying to speak for the people of their constituency,” Haq said, while pointing out the quorum.

This compelled the speaker to order counting and soon after the counting was made, he adjourned the house until Friday at 10:30am as he noted the quorum was incomplete. In a written reply to a question, the minister in-charge for health, informed the house that 4,616 dengue cases had so far been recorded from Islamabad till December 6, 2021.

The minister for railways, in a written reply, informed the house that nine trains – Fareed Express, Mehr Express, Faiz Ahmed, Mehran express, Sir Syed Express, Badar Express, Ghouri express, Minwali express, And Shah Abdul Latif – have been outsourced.

The house was also informed that besides Covid-19 vaccine known as PakVac, the National Institute of Health (NIH) is manufacturing following vaccines and anti-Sera against various fatal bacterial viral and other diseases: 1) Rabies vaccine, 2) Tetanus Toxid vaccine, 3) Typhoid vaccine 4) Typhoid Cholera, 5) Measles vaccine 6), Allergy vaccine, 7) Anti-snake venom serum, and 8) Anti-rabies serum.

This report was first published in Business Recorder on Jan 20, 2022.