ISLAMABAD, May 28, 2021: The National Assembly left most of its agenda unaddressed and was prorogued sine die on Friday amidst lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during sixth and last sitting of 33rd session:

  Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met an hour and 20 minutes.
• The sitting started at 11:02 am against the scheduled time of 11:00 am.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker did not attended the sitting.
• The Leaders of the House (Prime Minister) and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 23 (7%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 61 (18%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the sitting.
• Six minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Tabled by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, the House adopted a resolution to extend the National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 for a further period of 120 days with effect from June 9, 2021.
• The House did not consider four government bills, two ordinances and a statutory report.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as four out of 26 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the Question Hour. The lawmakers asked 10 supplementary questions as well.
• Parliamentary Secretary for Finance responded to a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding non-granting of compensation to the farmers of drought effected areas of Tehsil Mankera, Noorpur and Thal of District Bhakkar and Khushab. However, the Chair referred this CAN to the standing committee for further consideration.
• The House did not consider another CAN regarding non-implementation of 1991 Water Accord and motion of thanks to the President.

Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers spoke on points of order for seven minutes.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 11:11 am following which the proceedings remained suspended for 23 minutes.
• The opposition lawmakers walked out of the House at 12:15 pm against transfers of employees of three power houses in Sindh to various areas of Punjab. They did not return to the House until adjournment of sitting.
• A PPPP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 12:17 pm following which the Chair directed for counting. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to media and observers.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted