The Eighth Sitting of Nineteenth Session of the National Assembly met for 3 Hours and 59 minutes. The sitting started with a total of 72 members and ended with 60 legislators present, reports the Free and Fair Election Network [FAFEN] in its Daily Factsheet on the National Assembly Proceedings.

The following are some key observations of the Parliamentary Business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for 03 hours and 59 minutes.
• The Eighth sitting started at 1639 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours. The House proceedings started late by 39 minutes.
• There was a 20 minutes break on the account of prayers during the Eighth Sitting.
• The Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Relevant Minister were present during the sitting.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition were present during the course of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML, MQM and PMLF were present, while the leaders of MMAP, ANP, NPP, PPPS and BNPA remained absent.
• Eight Members appealed for leave to be absent from the parliamentary sitting.
• A total of 72members were present at the outset of the sitting, while 60 members were present at the end of the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• There were 2 Calling Attention Notices on the Order of the Day. However, the House took only one such notice. The other CAN was deferred.
• The Calling Attention Notice taken up by the House was directed to the Ministry of Education regarding the ‘non-issuance of equivalence certificate of Diploma in Associate Engineering (DAE) equal to the F.Sc by the International Islamic University’. The raised CAN was moved by 5 PPPP Members
• A total of 23 questions were listed to be taken up during the Questions Hour. However, only 10 were raised and responded to by the relevant minister.

Output

• There were 2 bills listed on the Orders of the Day; However the Lower Chamber took up none

Order and institutionalization

• 21 Points of Order were raised. However, none of them required Speaker’s ruling.
• There was one Adjournment Motion on “construction of water reservoirs by India on rivers in violation of Indus Basin Water Treaty” on the Orders of the Day, but was not discussed in the House.
• There was one instance of walkout recorded during the sitting, by Mr. Jamshad Ahmed Dasti of PPPP on the issue of “violence on students in Multan”.

Transparency

• Order of the Day was available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting. However, lack of quorum was not pointed out by any of the members of National Assembly.

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The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN