ISLAMABAD, September 5, 2012: The National Assembly met for two hours and 38 minutes during the third sitting of the ongoing 45^th session on Wednesday witnessing low attendance of Members as only 78 were present at the outset and 112 were there at the adjournment.

Three Members – one each of the PPPP, PMLN and MMAP – spoke on the Motion regarding law and order in the country for 45 minutes.

The Prime Minister was present for 11 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 31 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1800 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The proceedings started an hour late.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting. The Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Prime Minister was present for 11 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Only the Parliamentary Leader of the MMAP, PMLF and PPPS was present.
• The Chief Whips of PMLN, ANP and MMAP attended the sitting.
• Seventy-eight legislators (23%) were present at the outset of the sitting while there were 112 MNAs (33%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 168 Members were present at one point of the sitting.
• Eight Members applied for leave.
• All Minority Members were present.
• The House took a 35 minutes prayer break.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Three Members – one each of the PPPP, PMLN and MMAP – spoke on the Motion under Rule 259 regarding the law and order in the country for 45 minutes.
• A Calling Attention Notices (CAN) about governments’ approach to rectify loadshedding in different parts of the country was taken up by the House.
• Out of the 25 questions to be taken up during the Question Hour, only 10 were put up and responded. Additionally, a total of 12 supplementary questions were also asked during the sitting.

Output

• The National Tariff Commission (Amendment) bill 2012 was introduced and sent to the Standing Committee.

• The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2011 was deferred.

Order and institutionalization

• No Point of Order was raised during the sitting time.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.

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.