ISLAMABAD: A day after the Parliament nodded its approval to the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the scheduled meeting of the Upper House on Friday appeared to have been marked with disinterest of the senators that prompted the presiding officer to adjourn the session without transacting business agenda.
Chairman Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani, Deputy Chairman Senate Syedaal Khan, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the House in Senate Ishaq Dar, and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Allama Raja Nasir Abbas did not attend the Senate session.
Less than half of the Senate’s total membership or 42 lawmakers in the 96-seat Upper House showed up at the meeting.
Shortly after its meeting began, the House was caught in a surprising situation during the question hour, as only one of the senators who submitted written questions for the question hour was present at the session.
Waqar Mehdi from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was the only senator present in the House who had moved three written questions related to Pakistan Railways.
Presiding Officer Shahadat Awan deferred the question hour till next sitting.
He continued the session for less than an hour and adjourned it till Monday.
Earlier, speaking at the Senate session, treasury lawmaker Saadia Abbasi from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) said that the newspapers could not be distributed to the readers in Islamabad on Friday because the Capital Development Authority (CDA) raided the newspapers’ distribution offices. “This is a serious matter. Reply must be sought from the Interior Ministry,” she demanded.
In the previous Senate session that was held on Wednesday, 66 senators comprising more than two-thirds of the House’s membership, were present when the Senate, following the National Assembly, approved the contentious proclamation of emergency in KP earlier on Sunday. This session was presided over by Gilani, the Chairman Senate.
On Thursday, the two Houses of the Parliament came together in the joint session to approve separate resolutions regarding the proclamation of emergency and governor’s rule in KP.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026