Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The ruling and opposition parties in the lower house have agreed on a formula to hold the budget session of the National Assembly through participation of only 86 lawmakers – the minimum number required to maintain NA quorum – in order to stop the spread of contagious coronavirus disease.
This was decided on Monday in a meeting of the parliamentary leaders in the National Assembly chaired by Speaker Asad Qaiser at the Parliament House.
Under rule 5 of the National Assembly, if at any time during a sitting, the attention of the NA speaker is drawn to the fact that less ‘than one-fourth’ of the total membership of the assembly is present, the speaker has to suspend the business.
The National Assembly consists of a total of 342 members of which 272 are directly elected through general election. 70 MNAs are indirectly elected on reserved seats for women and religious minorities. One-fourth of 342 members is around 86.
According to the formula, 46 lawmakers from the ruling PTI and its allies will attend the upcoming budget session while the rest of 40 lawmakers will be from opposition parties.
While initiating the discussioni n the meeting , the speaker said 13 members of the house – including him – have tested positive for Covid-19 besides a significant number of staff members.
