• Points of Order consume 84% of sitting time

ISLAMABAD, September 5, 2014: Starting 35 minutes behind schedule, the fourth sitting of the ongoing Joint Session of the Parliament left the sole agenda item on the Orders of the Day unaddressed to raise five Points of Order which consumed 84% of the sitting time, says the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Only one independent legislator spoke on the Motion about the political situation in the country for three minutes. The parliamentarians also offered fateha for the people who lost their lives in recent torrential rains in various parts of the country.

The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 99 minutes while, his counterpart, the Leader of the Opposition, attended the entire sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The joint sitting lasted an hour and 44 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1035 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours, witnessing a delay of 35 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting. The Deputy Speaker was also present. The Chairman Senate and the Deputy Chairman Senate did not attend the sitting.
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 99 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting. The Leader of the House in Senate attended the entire sitting while the Leader of the Opposition in Senate was present for 62 minutes.
• A total of 92 legislators (21% of the total membership of 446 – 342 in NA and 104 in Senate) were present at the outset of the sitting while 224 (50%) were there at the adjournment. A maximum of 246 members (55%) were observed to be present at one point during the sitting.
• The NA parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, APML, JUI-F, BNP-A, PML-Z, QWP and AMLP attended the sitting.  Similarly, Senate’s parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PML-N were also present.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• An independent lawmaker spoke on the prevailing political situation for three minutes.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Five Points of Order consumed 87 minutes of the sitting time (84% of the proceedings’ time). However, none of them attracted the Chair’s formal ruling. Unless the Chair gives a formal ruling on a Point of Order, it doesn’t lead to any assembly output.
• There was no instance of protest, boycott or walkout.

 Transparency

• Information on members’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.  

You may download the Urdu version of this here.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of FAFEN and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Parliament proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI); a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions excepted.