Govt fails in getting Bill passed from PA

LAHORE - Seeing the inability of the Treasury to keep the quorum intact twice, Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan on Monday virtually started acting as Chief Whip when the government benches were trying to get through the Ali Institute of Education Lahore Bill from the House.
This has happened despite the fact Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif was present in the Assembly premises. Later, Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah Khan maintained that it was incidental that the quorum could not be kept intact. Moreover, the official spokes person said the MPAs were discussing the development projects with Shahbaz Sharif; hence they were stuck up in the CM’s chamber, and could not attend to the Assembly proceedings.
Interestingly, the government is yet to appoint Chief Whip and his deputies. Traditionally, the Chief Whip - supported by Deputy CW and Assistant CW - has the role in party politics whose primary purpose is to ensure control of the formal decision-making process in a parliamentary legislature. They are the party ‘enforcers’, who typically offer both inducements and punishments to party members. In modern times, most Whips are concerned primarily with ensuring a desired attendance for an important vote.
Because legislatures typically only require a majority of the quorum in attendance, a majority party can be outvoted if a large number of its legislators are absent and the Opposition is in full attendance. An important part of a government Whip’s job is to ensure that this situation never arises, but it all happened. Even quick moves around by the Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan, Rana Sana and others in search of their members did not help the Treasury’s cause.