"Assemblies in Pakistan just need to put up an 'adults only' notice at the entrance and hope it will ensure a full house", said a leading daily after a lawmaker was caught watching a TV show on his iPad.
An editorial in the Dawn on Tuesday said: "Assemblies in the country that are forever struggling on account of a lack of quorum may just have been extended a lifeline: all they need to do is to put up an `adults only' notice at the entrance and hope it will ensure a full house."
It said this suggestion was implicit in the message Sindh lawmaker Pir Mazharul Haq delivered to a woman legislator on Saturday.
"A television channel had shown him watching a TV show on his iPad during assembly proceedings in the same manner as channels have shown our lawmakers napping, playing with their cellphones or indulging in small talk while the halls have resonated with fate-making speeches," the Dawn said.
"However, Haq's ire fell on Marvi Rashdi for raising the subject, and he regretted being part of an assembly which allowed ‘children’ as its members."
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader accused Rashdi of not possessing manners befitting a lawmaker.
He spoke with fervour but did not say what a lawmaker, "let alone one who wears various badges of seniority, is not supposed to be watching on his iPad during an assembly session", the editorial said.
"But for some timely parental guidance from the speaker who defended Sindh assembly members as grown-ups worthy of a seat in the house, Haq might have continued with his lecture on ethics and etiquette. Those looking for more fireworks and more in-house entertainment may certainly have felt deprived when the session was wound up early," it added.