Sitting No. 10 of Session No. 19 of the National Assembly held on Friday, February 19, 2010

The tenth sitting of Nineteenth Session of the National Assembly that started at 1042 Hours with only 47 members present lasted for only for an hour and 48 minutes, 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 an hour and 48 minutes.
• The Tenth sitting started at 1042 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The House proceedings started late by 42 minutes.
• 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 PPPS and PMLF were present, while the leaders of PML, MMAP, ANP, NPP, MQM and BNPA remained absent.
• 11 Members appealed for leave to be absent from the parliamentary sitting.
• A total of 47 members were present at the start of the sitting, while 88 members were present at the end of the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• There were 2 Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on the Orders of the Day. The House took up one CAN.
• The Calling Attention Notice taken up by the House was directed to the Ministry of Finance and Revenue and the Ministry of Planning and Development regarding the ‘imposition of cut on the funds of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP)”. The CAN was raised by 1 member of PPPS and 1 member belonging to PML.
•  A total of 22 questions were listed on the agenda to be taken up during the Questions Hour. However, only 7 questions were raised and responded to by the relevant minister.

Output

• There was one bill (The Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies Bill, 2010) on the Orders of the Day which was deferred by the House to be discussed on February 22, 2010.
• A total of six Ordinances were on the Orders of the Day, which were laid in the House.

Order and institutionalization

• 7 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 during the sitting.
• There was one instance of protest during the tenth sitting by a member of PPPP.

Transparency

• Orders 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.

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