PARLIAMENT Question Time opened in Parliament this morning, with a high number of parliamentarians who had fielded questions absent when the session began.

The session therefore saw up to Question No 23 in the order paper to be answered. All in, 12 questions were skipped and 11 answered.

In all, 10 MPs were absent when their questions were mentioned. The questions of two other MPs could not be answered because there was no minister available to answer them.

"Today, somehow we reached Question 23," Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia ( right ) said later. "Maybe, next time we should aim for Question 30, like in New Zealand."

Regularly, question time will see only up to Question 10 or Question 15 in the order paper answered.

While there had been instances where one or two MPs were absent in asking questions listed in the paper, today saw 10 MPs absent, nine of them consecutively.

The House started erupting in laughter as the list grew longer, before Juslie Ajirol (BN-Libaran) finally managed to ask a question that was answered by the Prime Minister's Department.

As the question time rarely extends beyond question 10 to 15, MPs who had asked questions beyond that point are seldom present in the House as they expect written answers.

Ministers too, prepare written answers for questions beyond that point, which are delivered to MPs the following day.

Pandikar later reminded the MPs not to blame ministers for being absent when their own members are absent when questions crop up.

"I'm tired of listening to the same arguments and debates for six years now," he said.