Parliament was yesterday adjourned before the debate even began after a quorum was called for and the number of representatives in the house did not meet the quota.

The sitting started off well enough with good-natured banter being exchanged from both sides of the house. However a slanging match later ensued during question time. The speaker was about to call a close to question time, but repeated points of order were raised and this eventually led to a quorum being called.

This was not met and the house was adjourned till next Monday.

PAC postponed too

Following the postponement of yesterday evening's parliamentary sitting, the sitting of the Public Accounts Committee was postponed too after no quorum was established.

PAC chairman Charles Mangion and two other MPs from the Opposition ranks, Joe Abela and Joe Sammut, waited for 20 minutes but no MP from the government side turned up. The sitting was thus postponed to 14 June, much to the chagrin of the cooperatives board members who had been told to attend. The sitting was due to discuss the cooperatives movement with reference to the bankrupt poultry cooperative.