ISLAMABAD, October 11, 2012: The National Assembly, which met for two hour and 14 minutes during the fifth sitting of the ongoing session, continued to witness low interest of legislators. Only 88 Members were present at the outset of the sitting while 45 were there at the adjournment.

Though the House managed to complete the Orders of the Day, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker, and the parliamentary leaders of MQM, PML, ANP, MMAP, PPPS and PMLF did not attend the sitting.

Nine Points of Order consumed 23 minutes. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

Two Resolutions on eradicating polio from Pakistan and against the vulgar channels being shown by Cable TV were adopted by the House. Both the Resolutions were sponsored by PPPP legislators.

The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2011 was unanimously passed by the House.

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 14 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1813 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The proceedings started an hour and 18 minutes late.
• A Member of Panel of Chairperson chaired the sitting for 39 minutes while the remaining time was presided over by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of the NPP and BNPA attended the sitting.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, PMLN and ANP were present.
• Eighty-eight (26%) Members were present at the outset while there were 45 (13%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 165 Members were present at one point of the sitting.
• All the Minority Members attended the sitting.
• Ten Members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Two Calling Attention Notices about shortage of anti-venom vaccine in government hospitals in Islamabad for timely cure of increasing snake-bite victims and non-existence of emergency evacuation and exit at the factories in Islamabad were taken up by the House.
• Nine out of 20 questions appearing on the agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant minister. Additionally, ten Supplementary Questions were also asked.

Output

• The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2011 was unanimously passed by the House.
• The Standing Committee report on the 2^nd biannual monitoring on the implementation of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award (July-December, 2011) was presented to the House.
• Two Resolutions on eradicating polio from Pakistan and against the vulgar channels being shown by Cable TV were adopted by the House. Both the Resolutions were sponsored by PPPP legislators.

Order and institutionalization

• Nine Points of Order consumed 23 minutes. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts.

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

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.