• Joint Sitting starts after more than an hour and 50 minutes delay
• Low Attendance; only 46 present at the adjournment

ISLAMABAD, March 27, 2012: Starting an hour and 50 minutes behind schedule, the Joint Sitting of the Parliament met for three hour and 12 minutes as it witnessed two walkouts and passed a bill on Tuesday.

The legislators of ANP and MQM respectively walked out of the House over delay in starting the sitting and the law and order Karachi.

Five Members –the Opposition Leader, the parliamentary leader of the MMAP, two PPPP parliamentarians and a PMLN Member – spoke on the report of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security for 84 minutes.

Twelve Points of Order consumed 49% of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order raised attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

A total of 182 (from both the Houses) Legislators were present at the start while only 46 were there when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 256 Members were present during a point of the sitting.

The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 53 minutes.

Only the Parliamentary Leaders of the MMAP and PPPS attended the proceedings.

Legislators’ participation in Parliament proceedings

• The Joint Sitting met for three hours and 12 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1220 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1030 hours. The proceedings started late by an hour and 50 minutes.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting for 52 minutes while the remaining time was presided over by the Speaker.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 53 minutes.
• Only the parliamentary leaders of the MMAP and PPPS were present while those of the NPP, ANP, PML, PMLF, BNPA and MMAP were absent.
• The Chief Whips of the PPPP, PMLN, MMAP, MQM, BNPA, PML and PMLF were present.
• A total of 182 legislators were present at the start and 46 at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 256 Members were present during a point of the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• No Calling Attention Notices appeared on the Orders of the Day.

Parliamentary Output

• The Stock Exchanges (Corporatisation, Demutualization and Integration) Bill 2009 was passed by the Parliament.
• Five Legislators – two each of PMLN and PPPP and one MMAP – spoke on the report of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security for 84 minutes.

Order and institutionalization

• Twelve Points of Order consumed 94 minutes (50%) of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order raised attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• The sitting witnessed two protests. ANP legislators staged a three-minute walkout against the delay in starting the joint sitting. On another instance, MQM parliamentarians walked out of House against the law and order in Karachi. They went out of the House at 1230 hours and did not come back to attend the proceedings.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Legislators’ 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.