PESHAWAR: When experienced players of treasury and opposition benches were out to play cricket with Punjab Assembly members on Tuesday, the backbenchers had a field`s day discussing anything but the agenda in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

In the absence of Speaker Asad Qaisar, Deputy Speaker Dr Maher Taj Roghani chaired the sitting.

Leader of the house Pervez Khattak and leader of the opposition Maulana Lutfur Rehman were absent from the session that has been convened by the government.

The house looked more like an unruly classroom, which elderly and inexperienced Roghani could not manage well.

In the 124-strong house, only 24members were present.

Despite a lack of quorum, the sitting was in progress and only minister for elementary and secondary education Mohammad Atif Khan was available to give reply on behalf of his fellows. All the three senior ministers and parliamentary leaders were either absent from the sitting or came late.

PTI MPA Fazal Hakim drew the chair`s attention towards the quorum. Deputy Speaker Dr Roghani asked for head count. When the quorum was incomplete, she ordered the ringing of the bells for two minutes but even then, the required number of lawmakers was not present.

She`d to adjourn the sitting until 3pmFriday.

A brief agenda, which contained only eight items, including recitation from the Holy Quran, leave applications and announcement for panel of chairmen by the chair was circulated, but it remained incomplete because of a lack of quorum.

The opposition members continued their speeches although the deputyspeakerhadleftthehouse.

Sardar Hussain Babak of the ANP andSardarAurangzebNalothaofthePML-N came down heavily on the government for not taking the house`s business seriously.

They said the province was facing serious issues like bad governance, corruption, and precarious law and order situation, but the government had turned a blind eye to the situation.

One of the reasons of poor attendance was that around 14 MPAs were in Lahore for a friendly cricket match with the team of Punjab Assembly. In this light, the floor was open to the backbenchers from the opposition, who rarely got the opportunity to speak.

The chair was also generous as she let everyone speak uninterrupted. It was funny to see some opposition members look at empty seat as they criticised the ruling party MPAs.

Even the women MPAs, who remained reserved often, spoke on some points.

JUI-F MPA Uzma Khan in her point of order demanded the establishment of breast feeding rooms in the government offices and steps to address the misery of disaster-hit people of Chitral.

She also called for the construc-tion of a bridge in Lower Dir district.

The chair invited MPA from Chitral Fouzia Bibi to throw light on the plight of people of her home district though the relevant minister and adviser or special assistant to the chief minister were not in attendance to respond.

Sardar Nalotha highlighted corruption in the revenue department and demanded action against Patwaris in Abbottabad district.

MPA Abdul Sattar Khan while taking the floor expressed serious reservations over the deplorable condition of basic health units in the province. He accused PTI senior leader Jehangir Tareen of being behind the mess in the health sector in the province.

The lawmal(er said a total of 137 health units in Kohistan district had been deserted since the government handed over health delivery system to different NGOs.

He alleged that those NGOs had looted billions of rupees in the name of provision of health services to the people.

He demanded a high-level inquiry into the matter to expose `corrupt mafia.