Low Attendance Persists in NA

ISLAMABAD, January 8, 2016: The trend of low attendance persisted in the National Assembly during sixth sitting of 28th session on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The National Assembly met for two hours and 31 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1040 hours against its scheduled time of 1030 hours.
  • The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Prime Minister was not present.
  • The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • Eleven Federal Ministers attended the sitting.
  • 38 MNAs (11%) were present at outset and adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PML-Z, BNP, JI, APML and AMLP were present.
  • Nine minority members were present.
  • Nineteen members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up seven out of 41 starred questions appearing on the agenda. The Members also asked 15 supplementary questions.
  • Only eight of 16 unstarred questions were replied.
  • The Minister of State for Interior & Narcotics Control responded to a Calling Attention Notice regarding illegal migration of Pakistanis to Thailand and Sri Lanka resulting in their detention there.
  • Five lawmakers spoke on the motion of thanks about the Presidential address consuming 58 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Lawmakers spoke on six Points of Order consuming 10 minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • The attendance of lawmakers is available on website of National Assembly.

To download the factsheet, click here for English Version, click here for Urdu Version


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