ISLAMABAD, November 03, 2010: The third sitting of the 26th NationalAssembly session met for two hours and 30 minutes. The attendance ofmembers at the end of the sitting was observed to be slightly better than theprevious two sittings, with 120 present. However, there were only 51legislators present at the outset of the sitting. The Quorum was visiblylacking at various stages of the sitting, but was not pointed out by any of themembers.

National Assembly unanimously passed the Oil and Gas Regulatory AuthorityBill, 2008 during the course of the sitting.

Members of the MQM expressed their reservation on the price hike ofpetroleum goods and boycotted the 26th session.

The Prime Minister attended the sitting briefly for 23 minutes, while theLeader of Opposition remained absent. Only the Parliamentary Leader ofPPPS was present, while the leaders of other Parliamentary Parties did notattend the proceedings.

The following are some key observations of the Parliamentary Business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 30 minutes.
• The second sitting started at 1030 Hours against the scheduledstarting time of 1000 hours. The House proceedings started late by 30minutes.
• The Speaker was not present during the sitting. The entire sitting waspresided over by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 23 minutes, while theLeader of Opposition remained absent.
• Only the Parliamentary Leader of PPPS was present, while the leadersof MMAP, ANP, MQM, PML, PMLF, NPP and BNPA were absent.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, PMLN, PML, MMAP and ANP were present,while the chief whips of MQM, PMLF, NPP and BNPA were absent.
• A total of 51 (15%) members were present at the outset of the sittingand 120 (35%) members at the end of the sitting.
• Nine members applied for leave to be absent from the sitting.
• All the minority members were present during the 3rd sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• There were 2 Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on the Orders of theDay. The House took up one CAN.
• The taken up CAN was regarding “shifting of NADRA Swift Center fromNarang Mandi to Muridkay”. The CAN was directed to the Ministry ofInterior and was moved by five members of PMLN.
• A total of 24 questions were listed to be taken up during the QuestionsHour. However, only seven were raised and responded to by therelevant minister.
• A total of 18 Supplementary Questions were raised in the House duringthe third sitting.

Output

• The National Assembly unanimously passed “the Oil and GasRegulatory Authority Bill, 2008” during the course of the sitting, whileThe Islamabad Rent Restriction Bill, 2010 was introduced. There weretwo bills [The National Vocational and Technical Education CommissionBill, 2008] and [The National Defense University Bill, 2009] which weredeferred.
• One report of the Law and Justice Standing Committee was presentedduring the sitting, regarding the Code of Criminal Procedures Bill,2008.

Order and institutionalization

• Seven Points of Order were raised, consuming 27 minutes (18% oftotal sitting time) of the sitting. However, none of the Points of Ordersraised by Members attracted Speaker’s ruling.
• There was one Adjournment Motion raised during the proceedings bymembers of the PMLN and PML regarding the “price hike in oil prices”.The debate on the motion is likely to start from tomorrow.
• There was an instance of a boycott by members of the MQM. Theyexpressed their reservations regarding the price hike in petroleumgoods and boycotted the rest of the 26th session.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers andthe public.
• The Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages during the sitting.However, lack of quorum was not pointed out by any of the membersof the National Assembly.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN