ISLAMABAD, September 23, 2013: The National Assembly suspended regular agenda and unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the suicide bombings on a church in Peshawar, during the fifth sitting of its sixth session, on Monday.

Moved by a PML-N lawmaker, the House expressed solidarity with the Christian community and called upon the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to not only protect the rights of the non-Muslims but also bring the perpetrators of the incident to justice. Earlier the House observed a minute silence to mourn the victims of the attack. All opposition parties attended the proceedings wearing black armbands to protest against the incident.

On a motion moved by a PML-N lawmaker, the House bypassed the regular agenda to hold a discussion on the suicide attacks. Nine MNAs shared their views on the tragedy for 112 minutes. Later the House adopted another motion -moved by the same MNA – to continue the discussion in the next sitting.

The Speaker chaired the sitting that lasted two hours and 27 minutes. The Prime Minister did not attend the proceedings while the Leader of the Opposition and the parliamentary leaders of JI, PkMAP, ANP and the sole APML MNA were present.

A newly elected PTI lawmaker took oath during the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 27 minutes observing a 20-minute prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1653 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours, witnessing a delay of 53 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting while the Deputy Speaker was absent.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the proceedings while the Leader of the Opposition was present.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI, PkMAP, ANP and the sole APML MNA were present.
• Eighty members were present at the outset while 108 were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 132 members were present at one point of sitting.
• Five minority members attended the sitting.
• None of the members applied for leave. 
• A newly elected PTI lawmaker took oath during the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Moved by a PML-N lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn the suicide bombings on a church in Peshawar.
• The House suspended the regular agenda, on a motion moved by a PMLN lawmaker, to discuss the church attack. Nine MNAs spoke on the incident for 112 minutes.
• Another motion was adopted by the assembly to continue the discussion on the Peshawar Church attacks in the next sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• MNAs spoke on two points of order for two minutes.
• The entire opposition attended the sitting wearing black armbands to protest against the church attack incident.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to observers and the public.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI); a member organization of FAFEN