National Assembly Defers Private Members’ Business

ISLAMABAD, May 22, 2018: The National Assembly deferred private members’ agenda on Tuesday and consumed major portion of its proceedings in discussing Points of Order, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the 16th sitting of the 56th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The National Assembly met for an hour and 29 minutes.
  •  The sitting started at 1128 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
  • The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
  • The Opposition Leader was not present.
  •  As many as 37 lawmakers (11%) were present at the outset and 75 (22%) at the adjournment of sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of QWP, JI, PPPP, AJIP and NP attended the sitting.
  • Four minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

  • The House did not take up the legislative business, standing committees’ reports, a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) and a resolution.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up a CAN regarding non-provision of new gas connections to the consumers in Sindh.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • Lawmakers spoke on 20 points of order consuming 57 minutes of the proceedings.
  • An MQM lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1255 hours which led to the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on May 23, 2018 (Wednesday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

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

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