ISLAMABAD, March 26, 2014: The 3^rd sitting of the 10^th session of National Assembly was adjourned on Wednesday due to lack of quorum, after consuming 59 per cent of the total proceedings time over debate on matters under Rule 18, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defence presented report of the committee on the Survey and Mapping Bill, 2013 to provide for constitution and regulation of survey of Pakistan. Earlier, the House condoned the delay in presentation of the report through a motion moved by the chairman of the committee.

Jointly sponsored by five PPPP legislators, including two females and a minority lawmaker, the House took up a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding smuggling of petroleum products at Pak-Iran border, leading to illegal availability thereof in the country. The other CAN, sponsored by PML-N minority lawmaker, was also taken up regarding Pakistan’s ranking as fifth among tuberculosis high-burden countries.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings:

• The National Assembly met for three hours and forty minutes.
• The sitting started at 1055 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours, witnessing a delay of 25 minutes.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 54 minutes while the rest of proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, MQM, APML, ANP and AMLP were present.
• Forty-five members were present at the outset while 43 were there at the adjournment. A maximum of 162 members were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• Eight minority members attended the sitting.
• Twelve members applied for leave.
  

Output

• Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defence presented report of the committee on the Survey and Mapping Bill, 2013 to provide for constitution and regulation of survey of Pakistan.
• Earlier, the chairman of Standing Committee on Defence presented a motion to condone the delay in presentation of the report which was approved by the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Jointly sponsored by five PPPP legislators, including two females and a minority lawmaker, the House took up a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding smuggling of petroleum products at Pak-Iran border, leading to illegal availability thereof in the country. The other CAN, sponsored by PML-N minority lawmaker, was also taken up regarding Pakistan’s ranking as fifth among tuberculosis high-burden countries.
• All 14 starred questions (requiring oral as well as written answers) on the agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministries. Additionally, 14 supplementary questions were asked.
  

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on 23 matters under Rule 18 for two hours and 10 minutes.
• An MQM legislator pointed out lack of quorum after not getting permission to speak on a matter under Rule 18. The Deputy Speaker ordered for the count and finally the quorum was found incomplete and the sitting was adjourned for the next day.
• When the counting was in progress, MQM members walked out of the House just before the sitting was adjourned to meet again tomorrow.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to observers and the public.

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 National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI); a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions excepted