ISLAMABAD, August 10, 2017: The sixth sitting of the National Assembly was adjourned for a week on Thursday due to lack of quorum, leaving its scheduled business unaddressed, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings of the National Assembly’s 44^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 40 minutes, while the sitting remained suspended for 21 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1108 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 74 (22%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 43 (13%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI, APML, QWP-S and NP attended the sitting.
• Six minority lawmakers were also present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 10 out of 31 Starred Questions during the proceedings. The lawmakers asked 26 supplementary questions as well.
• The Calling Attention Notices appearing on the Orders of the Day were left unaddressed.
• The House could not conduct the election for the members of the Board of Governors of the National Book Foundation.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1220 hours which led to the suspension of the sitting for 21 minutes. The quorum was found incomplete on resumption of the proceedings and the sitting was adjourned till August 17, 2017.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on the National Assembly website.

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