ISLAMABAD, October 11, 2011: The National Assembly met for two hours and 17 minutes during the 7^th sitting of the ongoing 35^th Session. The sitting witnessed low attendance with 31% of the Legislators present at the outset of the sitting and only 16% at the end.

A total of nine Private Member Bills were taken up by the House during the 7^th sitting. The Right to Information Bill 2011, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2011), the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Hindu Marriage Bill 2011], the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Control of Narcotics Substances (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2011(Amendment of Article 209), and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2011 (Amendment of Article 193) were sent to the respective Standing Committees.

The Prime Minister attended the sitting briefly for 45 minutes, while the Leader of Opposition was not present. The Parliamentary Leaders of the PPPP, MQM and NPP were present, whereas the leaders of other parliamentary parties did not attend the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the Parliamentary Business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 17 minutes.
• The 7^th sitting started at 1813 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The proceedings started late by 73 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting, while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting briefly for 45 minutes, while the Leader of Opposition remained absent.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of the PPPP, MQM and NPP were present, while the leaders of the ANP, MMAP, PML, BNPA, PPPS and PMLF were absent.
• The Chief Whips of the PPPP, PMLN, PML, ANP and NNP were present, while the chief whips of the MMAP, MQM, PMLF, PMLF and BNPA were absent.
• A total of 107 (31%) Members were present at the outset of the sitting, while 55 (16%) Members were present at the end of the sitting.
• Maximum presence of 185 Members (54%) was observed at one point of the sitting.
• A total of 14 Members applied for leave to be absent from the sitting.
• Nine out of 10 Minority Members were present during the 7^thsitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up the two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on the Orders of the Day.
• Moved by the four PPPP parliamentarians, the CAN regarding the “accident of school children bus on Motorway at Kalar  Kahar due to negligence of Motorway police” was directed to the Ministry of Communications.
• The other CAN was regarding “the grounded PIA aircraft creating problems for the pilgrims”. Moved by five PMLN Members, this CAN was directed to the Ministry of Defense.
• There was no Question and Answer session as Tuesday’s sitting was a Private Members Day.

Output

• Nine Private Member Bills were taken up by the House during the 7^th sitting.
• The Right to Information Bill 2011, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2011], the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Hindu Marriage Bill 2011], the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Control of Narcotics Substances (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2011(Amendment of Article 209), and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2011 (Amendment of Article 193) were sent to the respective Standing Committees.
• Four bills were moved by PMLN Members, three by PPPP and one each by the parliamentarians of PML and MQM.
• A Standing Committee Report on The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2011 was presented before the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six Points of Order were raised, consuming 20 minutes (15% of total sitting time). However, none of the Points of Order raised by Members attracted the Speaker’s ruling.
• Five Resolutions tabled on the Orders of the Day were not taken up by the House.
• There was no adjournment motion raised during the course of the sitting.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts.

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting. However, lack of quorum was not pointed out by any of the Members.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN