NA Fails to Transact Agenda amid Lack of Quorum

ISLAMABAD, January 25, 2021: The National Assembly could not transact any business after Question Hour due to lack of quorum on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during second sitting of the 28^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 11 minutes, however, the proceedings remained suspended twice for an hour due to prayer break and lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1655 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 58 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Leaders of the House (Prime Minister) and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 57 (17%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 62 (18%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML and BAP attended the sitting.
• Four minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House did not take up any of the agenda items appearing on `Orders of the Day’ except question hour.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as ten out of 23 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the Question Hour. The lawmakers asked 16 supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1815 hours following which the Chair directed for counting and later suspended the proceedings at 1824 hours. The proceedings resumed at 1903 hours but the quorum was found incomplete and the House was adjourned the meet again on January 26, 2021 (Tuesday) at 1600 hours.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to legislators, observers and publi
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to 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

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