NA sitting adjourned amid lack of quorum

ISLAMABAD, January 19, 2022: The National Assembly left entire agenda unaddressed and was adjourned due to lack of quorum on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during eighth sitting of the 40th session:

 Members’ Participation

  • The National Assembly met for 16 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 04:53 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
  • The speaker chaired the entire sitting.
  • The deputy speaker did not attend the sitting.
  • The leaders of the house (Prime Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 63 (18 percent) lawmakers were present at the outset and 58 (17 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • Parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PML and GDA attended the sitting.
  • One minority lawmaker was present.

 Output

  • The House did not take up legislative business, three reports of standing committees and two statutory reports.

 Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House neither observed question hour not took up two calling attention notices.
  • A motion of thanks to the President for his address to both Houses and a motion under Rule 259 were not taken up.

Order and Institutionalization

  • A lawmaker belonging to PML-N pointed out the quorum at 05:05 pm which was found incomplete upon counting.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, January 21, 2022 at 10:30 am.

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