NAVEED BUTT & AAMIR SAEED

ISLAMABAD: Each member of National Assembly will receive Rs96,250 TA/DA for attending the session for the remaining 11 days of its tenure while the total cost for 332 members would be Rs32 million to the national exchequer.

According to the Members of Parliament (Salaries and Allowances) Act 1974, each member is entitled to receive per day Rs3000 daily allowance (special), Rs1750 daily allowance (ordinary), Rs2000 conveyance allowance and Rs2000 housing allowance.

These allowances are calculated as three days before and three days after in case of session and two days before and two days after in case of committee meeting.

Besides the per diem allowance, a member also receives Rs173,000 per month salary, free travel that includes travel vouchers of Rs300,000 per annum, or cash allowance of Rs90,000 per annum and 20 business class return air tickets per annum.

Each member is also entitled to free installation of one telephone at residence and medical facilities as are available to class-I government officer.

Despite all these perks and privileges, members of National Assembly especially from treasury benches showed least interest in proceedings of the House during the five-year tenure of the government.

It has been a routine that Lower House sessions have been adjourned dozens of times due to lack of quorum. On Monday, MQM-P legislator Sohail Mansoor pointed out the quorum after Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq didn’t allow him to speak on a point of order.

The House remained suspended for over an hour and was later adjourned due to the lack of quorum without taking up any single item of the day’s agenda.

Meanwhile, a meeting of parliamentary parties’ leaders in the Speaker’s chamber was held to discuss FATA Reforms Bill and this also remained inconclusive due to absence of Special Assistant to Prime Minister Barrister Zafarullah Khan.

The meeting will be held again today (Tuesday) to develop a consensus for merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.