ISLAMABAD, April 20, 2017: The seventh sitting of the National Assembly also witnessed lack of interest of lawmakers as the proceedings had to be suspended due to missing quorum on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

It was the fifth time that the sitting had to be adjourned due to lack of quorum. However, the House succeeded in taking up its entire regular agenda.

 Following are key observations of the proceedings of the 7^th sitting of 41^st session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 10 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1057 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 40 minutes while the rest of the proceedings were presided over by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 61minutes.
• Eighty lawmakers (23%) were present at the outset and 37(11%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, APML, ANP, PML-F and QWP attended the sitting.
• Five minority members were present.

Output

• Chairman Standing Committee on Communications presented the Periodical Report of the Committee for the period July – December, 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was about insufficient number of seats for admission of deserving students in schools of Islamabad while the other notice was regarding sufferings of the patients due to non-availability of proper medical treatment at PIMS Hospital.
• Eight out of 31 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up while lawmakers asked 23 Supplementary Questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on seven Points of Order that consumed 22 minutes of the proceedings.
• The lawmakers belonging to PPPP staged a walk out at 1227 hours against the “enforced disappearances” of their party loyalists. The legislators did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.

• JI lawmakers walked out of the House at 1256 hours against unsatisfactory reply to CAN related to the sufferings of patients due to non-availability of proper medical treatment at PIMS Hospital.

• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1228 hours, subsequently head count was made and the House was found in order.
• A PPPP lawmaker again pointed out quorum at 1306 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted