ISLAMABAD, February 10, 2012: Starting more than an hour behind schedule, the eighth sitting of the National Assembly continued to witness low attendance by Members. Only 57 were present at the start and 82 when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 106 Members were present at one point during the sitting.

Spanning one hour and 11 minutes, the sitting witnessed 10 Points of Order, consuming 45% of the total time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

The Prime Minister attended the proceedings for 45 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was not present. The parliamentary leaders of the PPPP, MQM, PPPS and BNPA were present.

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for one hour and 11 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1105 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started late by 65 minutes.
• The deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 45 minutes. The Leader of the Opposition was not present.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of the PPPP, MQM, PPPS and BNPA were present while those of PMLN, PML, PMLF, ANP, NPP and MMAP were absent.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, MQM, PMLN, PPPS and BNPA were present.
• Fifty seven Members were present at the start and 82 at the end of the sitting.
• Three Members applied for leave to be absent from the sitting.
• Nine minority Members were present during the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not take up the two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) which appeared on the Orders of the Day.
• Out of the 14 Questions listed for the Question Hour, ten were responded. A total of 22 supplementary questions were raised.

Output

• The House also did not take up the Constitution (Twentieth Amendment) Bill, 2012.
• The First Quarterly Report for 2011-12 of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Pakistan’s economy was presented in the House.

Order and institutionalization

• Ten Points of Order consumed 32 minutes (45%) of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The Quorum, visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting, was not pointed out by any Member.

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.