ISLAMABAD, December 6, 2019: The National Assembly was adjourned without addressing the regular business due to lack of quorum on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the 17th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for an hour.
- The sitting started at 1122 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Forty-six lawmakers (13%) were present at the outset and 72 (21%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of BNP-M, GDA, MQM and JWP attended the sitting.
- Four minority members were present.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House did not take up any agenda item appearing on Orders of the Day.
- Only one out of 34 starred questions was taken up and two lawmakers asked supplementary questions as well.
Order and Institutionalization
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1135 hours during the question hour which led to the suspension of the proceedings for 31 minutes after consuming five minutes in counting. The sitting resumed at 1211 hours but the Chair had to adjourn the sitting at 1222 hours as the attendance of lawmakers was less than the required strength (i.e. one-fourth of total membership – 342).
- The House was adjourned to meet again on December 9, 2019 (Monday) at 1600 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Attendance of the lawmakers was available to the media and observers.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted.