ISLAMABAD, January 3, 2012: The National Assembly met for three hours and 50 minutes, its 10th sitting of the ongoing session. Only the parliamentary leaders of the PPPS and NPP attended the proceedings.
Just as it was in previous sittings, Members’ attendance remained low. Only 28 Legislators were present at the start while 61 were there when the sitting was adjourned.
The National Assembly left most of the agenda unaddressed. The House did not take up 12 Private Members’ Bills, five Motions under Rule 259, five Resolutions and one Calling Attention Notice. The Members raised a total of 32 Points of Order that consumed 67% of the total time. However, no Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
The House witnessed a tussle between Members of the ANP and MQM which interrupted the proceedings and the Chair had to suspend the sitting for 48 minutes.
The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 50 minutes. The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the proceedings.
Members’ participation in House proceedings
- The National Assembly met for three hours and 50 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1040 Hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings were delayed by 40 minutes.
- The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting for 60 minutes while a Member of the Panel of Chairpersons was in the chair for the remaining time
- The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 50 minutes. The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the proceedings.
- The Parliamentary Leaders of the PPPS and NPP were the only ones present while those of the ANP, MQM, BNPA, MMAP, PML and PMLF were absent.
- The Chief Whips of PPPP, PMLN, ANP, MQM and PML were present while those of the MMAP and PMLF were absent.
- A total of 28 (8%) Members were present at the start of the sitting while 69 (18%) Members were there at the end. Eight Members applied for leave to be absent from the sitting.
- Six minority Members were present during the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up one out of two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) which appeared on the Orders of the Day.
- Moved by five PMLN Members – three males and two females – the CAN was regarding “non-revalidation/release of funds for PWP-I and surrendered funds for PWP-II for the year 2010-11 despite approval of development schemes”, which was directed to the Cabinet Secretariat.
- There was no Question and Answer session as Tuesday’s sitting was a Private Members’ Day.
Output
A total of 12 Bills appeared on the Orders of the Day, which were not taken up by the House.
Order and institutionalization
- A total of 32 Points of Order were raised, consuming 155 minutes (67% of total sitting time) of the sitting. However, no Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
- None of the five Motions under Rule 259 were taken up.
- Five Resolutions on the Orders of the Day were not taken up by the House.
- The MQM submitted two resolutions in the Senate for making Hazara a separate province and making province/provinces out of south Punjab. Their Members wanted to discuss the Resolution in the National Assembly, on which there was a tussle between the Members of the ANP and MQM. This interrupted the proceedings. The Chair had to suspend the sitting for 48 minutes.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day were 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 Member.
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