ISLAMABAD, February 6, 2012: The National Assembly did not take up the Constitution (Twentieth Amendment) Bill, 2012 during its fourth sitting of the ongoing session on Monday.

The sitting spanning an hours and 46 minutes was marked by low attendance with 77 Legislators present at the start and 87 were there when the sitting adjourned.

The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were not present. The parliamentary leaders of the PML, PPPS, PMLF and BNPA were present.

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 46 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1820 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The proceedings started late by 80 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting for 56 minutes while the remaining time was presided over by a Member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were absent.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of the PPPS, PML, PMLF and BNPA were present while those of MMAP, ANP, MQM and NPP were not present.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, ANP, PMLN and MQM were present while those of PML, PMLF and MMAP were absent.
• A total of 77 (23%) Members were present at the outset of the sitting, while 87 (30%) Members at the end of the sitting.
• Three Members applied for leave to be absent from the sitting.
• Ten minority Members were present during the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) which appeared on the Orders of the Day.
• The first CAN, moved by five PMLN Members – three males and two males- was about “increase in the Public debt of the Government by 82% amounting to Rs. 10.996 trillion in violation of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act, 2005”, which was directed to Ministry of Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Planning and Development.
• Moved by four PMLN Members – two females and two males– the second notice was about “delay in the construction of residential projects initiated by the Housing Foundation in Sectors G-13, G-14 and Bhara Kaho”. It was directed to the Housing and Works.
• Out of the 21 questions to be taken up during the Question Hour, only eight were put up and responded by the relevant ministries.
• Twenty-four supplementary questions were raised during the sitting.

Output

• The Constitution (Twentieth Amendment) Bill, 2012 was not taken up.

Order and institutionalization

• Seven Points of Order were raised, consuming 20 minutes of the sitting. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The Quorum, visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting, was not pointed out by any Member.

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.