ISLAMABAD, September 7, 2012: Starting an hour and three minutes late, the fifth sitting of the 45^th session on Friday witnessed a walkout by the legislators of a government ally over issuance of the local government ordinance for Sindh. ANP announced that it would boycott the remaining session.

The House did not discuss the motion on the law and order in the country.

Forty-one legislators were present at the start while there were 84 MNAs at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 125 Members were present at one point of the sitting. None of the parliamentary leaders was present during the sitting. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.

Twenty Points of Order consumed 33 minutes of the sitting time. However none of them attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

Five out of 25 questions listed on the Agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant Minister.  Additionally eight supplementary questions were asked.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 31 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1103 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started an hour and three minutes late.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting while the Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders was present during the sitting.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, MMAP, PMLN and ANP were present.
• Forty-one legislators (12%) were present at the outset while there were 84 MNAs (25%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 125 Members were present at one point of the sitting.
• Six minority Members were present.  
• Five Members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices moved by PMLN Members. The first was about “non-regularization of children, appointed on contract basis, of the federal government employees who died during service” and the second was about “non-allotment of plot numbers to the allotters in different sectors in Islamabad whom provisional letters of Catt-II houses were issued by the Federal Government Housing Foundation.”
• Five out of 25 questions listed on the Agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant Minister. Additionally eight supplementary questions were asked.

Output

• The Gwadar Port Authority Bill 2012 was not taken up by the House.

Order and institutionalization

• Twenty Points of Order consumed 33 minutes of the sitting time. None of them attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• ANP staged a walkout at 1122 hours over the ordinance on local government institutions – People’s Metropolitan Corporation Ordinance 2012 – in Sindh and announced it would boycott session.

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.