ISLAMABAD, November 4, 2013: The National Assembly suspended the regular agenda on the Orders of the Day to debate the American drone attacks during the first sitting of the sixth session, on Monday.

The Federal Minister of Science and Technology tabled two motions at the beginning of the sitting, the first for the suspension of the entire agenda of today’s and tomorrow’s sittings and the second to hold a debate on the American drone attacks. The Interior Minister opened the debate by speaking for 29 minutes while the PTI parliamentary leader also shared his views on the subject.

The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present in the entire proceedings. The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, MQM, PTI, JUI-F and JI also attended the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for an hour and three minutes.
• The sitting started at 1827 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours, witnessing a delay of two Hours and 27 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting. The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Prime Minister was absent while the Leader of the Opposition attended the entire proceedings. The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, MQM, PTI, JUIF and JI were present.
• As many as 158 members were present at the outset while 216 were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 226 members were present at one point of sitting.
• Six minority members attended the sitting.
• None of the members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House held a 49-minute discussion on a motion on the recent American drone attacks. The Interior Minister and the PTI parliamentary leader shared their views on the motion for 29 and 20 minutes, respectively.

Order and Institutionalization

• MNAs spoke on seven points of order for five minutes.
• No protests, walkouts, boycotts were recorded during the sitting.

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.

This 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. Errors and omissions excepted