The National Assembly, which met for an hour and 39 minutes during the third sitting of the ongoing session, did not take up any of the agenda items listed for the Orders of the Day.

A total of 36 Items appeared on the agenda, including four bills and six resolutions, which were left unaddressed. The sitting was also marked by low attendance of Members as 82 were present at the start and 72 at the adjournment.

The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, along with all the parliamentary leaders did not attend the sitting.

Thirty-six Points of Order consumed 94 minutes of the sitting time. None of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 39 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1130 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started an hour and 30 minutes late.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting. The Speaker was absent.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, ANP and MMAP were present.
• Eighty-two (24%) Members were present at the outset while there were 72 (21%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 128 Members were present at one point of the sitting.
• Eight minority Members were present.
• Eight Members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Two Calling Attention Notices appearing on the Orders of the Day were not taken up by the House.
• The Question Hour was not held as it was a Private Members’ Day.

Output

•  Four Bills appearing on the Orders of the Day were not taken up by the House.

Order and institutionalization

• Thirty-six Points of Order consumed 94 minutes. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

• A PMLN Minority Member staged a walkout against the local government ordinance in Sindh. He walked out at 1221 hours and did not come back to attend the rest of proceedings.

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a Member organization of FAFEN.