Islamabad - It has been almost three months to start of first parliamentary year of the new government and four sessions of the Lower House have taken place but the ‘Question Hours’ are yet to gain momentum.

Question Hour is the first hour of a sitting, devoted to questions submitted by members of the House in advance regarding any aspect of administrative activity or policy of the government on specific matter.

Since August 13, four sessions have taken place, but there have been no questions in inaugural session.

In second session, there had been questions on first two days. The session on September 27 had only one question put up by lawmaker Riaz Fatyana.

On Monday, September 24, there had been two questions, again asked by MNA Riaz Fatyana. Third session also did not have any question hour. The fourth session saw question hours for 8 days.

During the 4th session, most of the questions remained unanswered.

On Monday, 5th November, 2018, around 45 oral questions and 25 un-starred questions were asked, but 21 remained unanswered.

During Question Hour, two types of questions are asked, starred or oral questions, which can be followed by a discussion in the form of supplementary questions of members while un-starred questions are usually have written replies, without supplementary questions.

Lawmaker Mohsin Dawar before 3rd session asked Minister for Defence to state the number of militants killed and arrested during Zarb-e-Azb Operation and the names of high-profile militants held or killed in the said operation, but it remained unattended even in the fourth session.

Along with pointed local level questions, policy-related and issues of common man were ignored.

Imtiaz Ahmed Chaudhary had asked the Minister for Energy that how many people were killed due to high voltage electric wires in Mandi Bahauddin during the year 2017-18 till date; the steps being taken by Wapda to prevent such causalities, and financial assistance/compensation paid by the government to the bereaved families, was not answered. Similarly, Minister for Energy did not responded to query regarding steps being taken by government to produce cheaper electricity in the country.

On Friday, 9th November, 2018 meeting out of 56 oral questions and 25 un-starred questions, the reply of 33 questions was not received.

On Thursday, the 1st November, 2018, out of around 32 oral and 17 un-starred questions, 16 remained unanswered. Abdul Akbar Chitrali had asked the Minister for Planning, Development and Reform about total amount received by Pakistan from CPEC initiative till date and the question remained unanswered as it had been during previous government.

Question Hour is known as one of the most important ways to hold the executive accountable in democracies; the related ministers are obliged to reply timely, either orally or in writing.