Exasperated by the ministers' attitude towards the Senate, members of the opposition boycotted Friday's proceedings (the house was not in quorum either) requesting Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to give a ruling on the issue. They returned, however, after the Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar arrived to present himself before the legislators, followed by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan. Apparently, they came because the chairman had ordered the filing of a written complaint with Prime Minister Imran Khan against his cabinet colleagues for their routine absence from the house.
Working of important Senate committees has been affected by a similar display of indifference. A press report points out that during the current month, Senate Standing Committee on Information which was to discuss the national advertisements policy, rejected the proposal on finding out the minister concerned had chosen to skip. A few months earlier, the Standing Committee on Water Resources cancelled its meeting because the Minister for Water Resources had not bothered to be present. This is no way of conducting the business of the Senate, the nation's highest forum, 'the House of the Federation' where all the federating units are equally represented. Unfortunately, however, the present government as well as its immediate predecessor has been taking the upper house rather lightly. At one point, annoyed over the consistent non-attendance of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the Senate had passed a resolution demanding that he participate in its sessions with some regularity. Even then he showed up just once to placate the senators rather than participate in the proceedings of the house.
This government's attitude towards the National Assembly is also quite disappointing. Prime Minister Imran Khan had vowed not only to regularly attend the assembly but also respond to the lawmakers queries in a bi-monthly "Prime Minister's Question Hour." During the last over five months, he has attended only seven sessions while the matter of the 'question hour' still hangs in the balance. In the previous assembly, too, he stayed out most of the time. The excuse now is that the opposition is too unruly. But his cabinet colleagues have not helped improve the environment either. In fact, they have constantly been provoking the opposition by hurling insults on its members calling them "robbers and thieves." The prime minister may be heckled a few times, that though should not deter him from coming to Parliament from which he draws legitimacy to govern and where government policies and issues of public concerns are debated, and laws made. The government must show due deference to both houses. The PM must lead by example. When he starts doing what he promised to do, there will be no quorum problem.