Not that this so-called sovereign parliament lacks political clout and has abdicated its administrative control, its credibility too has been undermined by its own members only a few of who would confess that if the assembly was meeting these days it is only for anything but law-making.
So the listed agenda which included the question hour and some motions and laying of reports was again put aside and the debate on the national disaster was resumed. One speaker followed another, each presenting his own perspective.
Of the dozen or so speeches only three conveyed something substantial. Sherry Rehman made one such speech, at the very outset rejecting the thesis that what we are experiencing these days are aftershocks.
These are not aftershocks, she asserted and demanded that school buildings and hospitals should be checked in order to assess their constructional viability. Strange that Pakistan is located on a fault line but here no seismic code has been adopted, neither Pakistan nor India-as both are nuclear powers- shares their seismic database with other countries.
That policy should change, was her opinion. She was also unhappy over the assembly's short working hours and asked the Chair either order five-day-a-week schedule or prorogue the House.
The PPPP lawmaker came hard on army leadership for not being able to rise to the challenge. Why did it take the world's fifth largest force four days--and even now the relief operation is inadequate. She proposed that the members should donate their next month's salaries also towards the relief fund.
Taking exception to General Musharraf's famous remark that NGOs are after money only, she said why the army couldn't check transporters who are making easy buck out of people's misery.
Then there is the question of rehabilitating the million people who have been rendered jobless. A bigger earthquake is due according to experts, she said, warning the government to get things seriously.
Riaz Pirzada sits on government benches but his speeches often rhyme with the opposition's sentiments, as it was today. No doubt natural calamities are punishments meted out to people for their collective sins, he said, citing Nobel laureate Amyrta Sen who has propounded that lands where justice prevails are not subjected to natural disasters.
"Look at our deeds. Just to please a foreign power we collaborated in perpetrating bloodshed in Muslim State...And, committed the worst possible vote rigging on the very first of Ramazan. And, look at our justice system..." Pirzada was bitter about the arrival of Nato forces in the name of helping the earthquake victims.
"The house should discuss this issue...If you need engineers why don't you call Chinese or Turks. What is the guarantee that the Nato forces will go back?"
Maulana Mairajuddin from Fata, who said he had been to a number of quake-hit areas, found three basic problems with the relief operation: Lawlessness, absence of co-ordination among various organisations in the field and denial of assistance to the deserving.
He proposed that areas should be demarcated and allocated to welfare organisations and the affected should not be shifted to places far away from their devastated homes. At the same time the donors should be informed of the nature of help that is required.
He was critical of Islamabad-based NGOs who capitalised on human misery and warned against handing over widows and orphans to "these infidels". Mairjauudin also earned Speaker Amir Hussain's order of expunction on his words about the two Taleban whose bodies were burnt by the Allied Forces.
Treasury member and parliamentary secretary Abdul Qader made another speech that was short but quite relevant to the subject under debate. Quoting a newspaper report that Islamabad was epicenter of one of the aftershocks, he asked why these aftershocks have been felt even at places where the October-8 earthquake did not strike.
"Why have we left the issue of earthquake to the DG of Met office?" The government should immediately hold an international conference of specialists in seismology, he proposed.
Speaker Amir Hussain has returned from Geneva where he led the delegation of Pakistan parliamentarians at the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference. Why did you meet the Israeli minister? asked Hafiz Hussain Ahmad. "It was not your private visit and you were representing this parliament...We have certain reservations about your meeting with the Israeli minister."
The Speaker was quick to respond: "He came to my desk as he was lobbying for support on an issue before the IPU. I thanked him for the support his country offered...Our foreign minister too had met his Israeli counterpart. If help is offered by an enemy one must at least thank him."
There were some more speeches on the floor, some in the praise for relief operation and others against. But the question remains how will mere words alleviate the sufferings of the affected people. Someone in the gallery proposed a solution.
Instead of coming to assembly let every member go to Muzaffarabad or Balakot every morning and return before sunset ferrying one injured person in his or her personal car. He should keep the injured at his residence and arrange for his treatment. This exercise should continue till the National Assembly completes its mandated 130-day sittings.
The House will now meet on Friday when the debate on earthquake is expected to be wrapped up.