Sitting No. 9 of Session No. 19 of the National Assembly held on Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Ninth Sitting of Nineteenth Session of the National Assembly met for 3 Hours and 39 minutes. Although the Quorum was visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting, the lack of quorum was not pointed out by any of the legislators. A total of 62 representatives were present at the outset of the sitting and ended with only 53 members present, reports the Free and Fair Election Network

The following are some key observations of the Parliamentary Business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for 03 hours and 39 minutes.
• The Ninth sitting started at 1645 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours. The House proceedings started late by 45minutes.
• There was a 32 minutes break on the account of prayers during the Ninth Sitting.
• The Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Relevant Minister were present during the sitting.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition were present during the course of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML, PPPS and PMLF were present, while the leaders of MMAP, ANP, NPP, MQM and BNPA remained absent.
• 11Members appealed for leave to be absent from the parliamentary sitting.
• A total of 62 members were present at the start of the sitting, while 53 members were present at the end of the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• There were 2 Calling Attention Notices on the Orders of the Day. Both the CANs were taken up by the Lower Chamber.
• The Calling Attention Notices taken up by the House were directed to the Ministry of Environment and the Cabinet Secretariat regarding the issues of “stoppage of Water Shed Project” and “spread of diseases in Islamabad due to throwing of waste into Korang Nullah”.
•  The CANs were raised by 3 members belonging to PPPP, 4 members of PMLN and 1 representative of PML.
• A total of 20 questions were listed on the agenda to be taken up during the Questions Hour. However, only 10 questions were raised and responded to by the relevant minister.

Output

• There were 3 bills listed on the Orders of the Day; the House took up all the three bills, “The National School of Public Policy (Amendment) Bill, 2010”, “The Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2010” and “The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority Bill, 2010”.

Order and institutionalization

• 17 Points of Order were raised. However, none of them required Speaker’s ruling.
• There was one Adjournment Motion on “construction of water reservoirs by India on rivers in violation of Indus Basin Water Treaty” on the Orders of the Day, but was not discussed during the sitting.
• There were no instances of boycotts, walkouts or protest during the Ninth sitting of the Nineteenth Session.

Transparency

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