The Seventh Sitting of Nineteenth Session of the National Assembly met for two and a half hours, leaving most of the agenda items on the Orders of the day unaddressed, reports the Free and Fair Election Network [FAFEN] in its Daily Factsheet on the National Assembly Proceedings.

The following are some key observations of the Parliamentary Business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for 02 hours and 26 minutes.
• The seventh sitting started at 1029 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The House proceedings started late by 29 minutes.
• There was no break during the Seventh Sitting.
• The Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Relevant Minister were present during the sitting.
• The Prime Minister was present during the sitting. However, the Leader of Opposition was absent.
• Parliamentary leader of PPPS was present, while the leaders of PML, MQM, MMAP, ANP, NPP, PMLF and BNPA remained absent.
• Six Members appealed for leave to be absent from the parliamentary sitting.
• A total of 32 members were present at the outset of the sitting, while 160 members were present at the end of the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• There were 2 Calling Attention Notices on the Order of the Day. However, the House took only one such notice. The other notice was deferred.
• The Calling Attention Notice taken up by the House was directed to the Ministry of Social Welfare regarding the ‘misappropriation of funds by an NGO’. The raised CAN was moved by 5 PPPP Members.
• There was no Question and Answer session as Tuesday’s session was a Private Members Day.
• Five resolutions were listed on the Orders of the Day. None of them was taken up.
•  Two Matters of Public Importance were to be discussed during Tuesday’s session. However, House debated on none possibly due to shortage of time.
• Five Motions under Rule 259 were listed on Orders of the Day, which were not addressed by the Lower Chamber.

Output

• There were seven Private Members’ Bills on the agenda. However, the House took up 4 bills.  
• A total of 4 bills were accepted and referred to Standing Committees.

Order and institutionalization

• 22 Points of Order were raised. However, none of them required Speaker’s ruling.
• The House debated the admitted Adjournment Motion on “construction of water reservoirs by India on rivers in violation of Indus Basin Water Treaty” for an hour.
• There were no instances of boycotts, walkouts or protest during the seventh sitting of the Nineteenth Session.

Transparency

• Order 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