ISLAMABAD, September 24, 2021: The National Assembly did not take up any agenda item on Friday due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

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

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for 14 minutes.
• The sitting started at 11:20 am against the scheduled time of 11:00 am.
• The deputy speaker chaired the entire sitting in the absence of speaker.
• The leaders of the house (Prime Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 54 (16 percent) lawmakers were present at the outset and 45 (13 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Four minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House did not consider six 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; the Evacuee Trust Properties (Management and Disposal) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Bill, 2021.
• Two Ordinances including the Federal Government Properties Management Authority Ordinance, 2021 and the Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 were not laid.
• The House did not take up three reports of standing committees and four statutory reports.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House neither observed question hour nor took up two calling attention notices.
• The House did not take up motion of thanks to President for his address to parliament on September 13, 2021.

Order and Institutionalization

• A lawmaker belonging to PML-N pointed out the quorum at 11:31 am which was found incomplete upon counting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, September 27, 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