ISLAMABAD, September 17, 2021: The National Assembly was adjourned on Friday due to lack of quorum amidst absence of the Leaders of the House and the Opposition, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 1st sitting of the 36th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for an hour and one minute.
• The sitting started at 11:24 am against the scheduled time of 11:00 am.
• The speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was not present.
• The leaders of the house (Prime Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 59 (17 percent) lawmakers were present at the outset and 63 (18 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Five minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• Tabled by Minister of state for parliamentary affair, the House unanimously adopted a resolution paying glowing tributes to the relentless and valiant struggle of Veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani for the right to self-determination of Kashmiri people.
• The House did not consider five government bills including the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Higher Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Higher Education Commission (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Evacuee Trust Properties (Management and Disposal) (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• An Ordinance – the Federal Government Properties Management Authority Ordinance, 2021- and three statutory reports were not laid.
• Two reports of standing committee on finance and revenue regarding the Government Savings Bank (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Post Office National Savings Certificates (Amendment) Bill, 2021 were not considered.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not consider motions to refer the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021 to the joint sitting of the Parliament.
• The House neither observed question hour nor took up two calling attention notices regarding performance of different institutions falling under the control of Ministry of Industries and Production and unscheduled electricity load-shedding in District Kasur.

Order and Institutionalization

• Three lawmakers spoke on points of order for six minutes.
• A lawmaker belonging to PPPP pointed out the quorum at 11:48 am following which the proceedings remained suspended for 35 minutes after counting. On the resumption of the proceedings at 12:23 pm, the quorum was found incomplete and the House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, September 20, 2021 at 05:00 pm.

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