ISLAMABAD, September 6, 2012:  Starting 66 minutes late, the National Assembly met for two hours and 39 minutes on Thursday adopted a Resolutions paying tribute to the army to mark the Defence Day.

The sitting was also witness by low attendance as only 104 Members were present at the outset and 66 were there when the sitting was adjourned.

Fifteen Members expressed their gratitude to mark the Defence Day for 51 minutes.

The Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and the Speaker did not attend the sitting. Only the parliamentary leader of PPPS attended the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 39 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1816 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The proceedings started an hour and 16 minutes late.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting. The Speaker was not present
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Only the parliamentary leader of the PPPS was present.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, PMLN, MMAP and ANP were present.
• A total of 104 legislators (34%) were present at the outset while there were 66 MNAs (50%) at the end of the sitting.
• Nine minority Members were present.
• Nine Members applied for leave.
• The House took a 40-minute prayer break.

Representation and Responsiveness

• A Calling Attention Notices regarding irregularities in auction of toll plazas on the National Highways was taken up.
• Six out of the 21 questions were taken up and responded by the relevant ministries.
• Eight supplementary questions were also raised during the sitting.

 Output

• The House adopted a Resolution paying tribute to the army to mark the Defence Day. 
• The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (Amendment) bill 2012 was introduced and sent to the respective Standing Committee.

• The Annual Report of the Federal Public Service Commission for the year 2010 was presented before the House.
• The Gwadar Port Authority bill 2012 was not taken up by the House.

Order and institutionalization

• Ten Points of Order consumed 14 minutes of sitting time. None of them attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There was no instance protest boycott or walkout 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.