ISLAMABAD, September 14, 2017: The quorum issue persisted in the National Assembly on Thursday as the sitting had to be adjourned due to the presence of less than 25 percent lawmakers in the House, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

The sitting remained suspended for 29 minutes due to lack of quorum pointed out by a PPPP lawmaker. It was the third such occasion except first sitting during the ongoing session when the quorum was pointed out and all three sittings had to be adjourned due to want to missing legislators.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of the 46^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 53 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1034 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Sitting remained suspended for 29 minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 42 minutes, Deputy Speaker for 11 minutes while rests of the proceedings were presided over by a member of Panel of Chairperson.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Forty-eight lawmakers (14%) were present at the outset and 62 (18%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, BNP and PML attended the sitting.
• Three minority members were present.

Output

• A bill – the Right of Access to Information Bill, 2017 – was taken up by the House and two lawmakers spoke on it for six minutes.
• The House did not take up a bill, a motion under Rule 259 and a motion of thanks appearing on the agenda.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as seven out of 37 Starred Questions were responded to by the treasury. The lawmakers asked 23 Supplementary Questions.
• The House did not take up two Calling Attention Notices appearing on the agenda.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PPPP lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1154 hours, subsequently head count was made and the Chair had to suspend the sitting for lack of quorum. The quorum was not found complete on the resumption of proceedings at 1227 hours, and the House had to be adjourned for next sitting on Friday.

Transparency 

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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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.