ISLAMABAD, February 08, 2013: The 12^th and the last sitting of 49^th session of National Assembly, which met for 10 minutes on Friday, was adjourned because of lack of quorum – 1/4^th of the total membership required for House proceedings.

A PMLN member pointed out the quorum only five minutes after the sitting started, which led to headcount and the adjournment of sitting.

No agenda item appearing on the Orders of the Day was taken up.

Only 53 members were present at the outset while 42 were there at the end. A maximum of 62 members were present at one point of sitting.

The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker and the parliamentary leaders of all the parties (MQM, MMAP, ANP, PML, PMLF, PPPS, NPP, and BNPA) were not present.

The session was prorogued.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met 10 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1120 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1030 hours, witnessing a delay of 50 minutes.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders of MQM, MMAP, ANP, PML, PMLF, PPPS, NPP, and BNPA attended the sitting.
• Chief whips of PML, PMLN and ANP were present whereas those of PPPP, MQM, MMAP, PMLF, PPPS, NPP, and BNPA did not attend the sitting.
• Fifty-three members were present at the outset while 42 were there at the end. A maximum of 62 members were present at one point of sitting.
• Three minority members attended the sitting.

 

Representation and Responsiveness

• 18 starred questions appeared on the agenda but none was taken up.
• Two calling attention notices and a motion under rule 259 appearing on the agenda were not taken up.

 

Output

• Two bills and two standing committee reports appearing the agenda were left unaddressed.

 

Order and Institutionalization

• A PMLN member pointed out the quorum at 1125 hours which led to headcount and adjournment of the sitting as 1/4^th members of the total membership required for House proceedings were not present.

 

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to observers and the public.

 

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI); a member organization of FAFEN