ISLAMABAD, May 29, 2018: The National Assembly on Tuesday could not take up most of its regular agenda due to early adjournment of sitting after lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during 21st sitting of the 56th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for two hours and 20 minutes while proceedings remained suspended for 28 minutes due to lack of quorum.
- The sitting started at 1126 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for 51 minutes while rests of the proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition were not present.
- As many as 51 (15%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 69 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of APML, PkMAP, QWP and AJIP attended the sitting.
- As many as four minority members were present.
Output
- The House did not take up legislative business, reports of the Standing Committees and a resolution appearing on regular agenda of Private Members’ Day.
- Tabled by Minister for Information and Broadcasting, the House adopted a supplementary resolution to make Parliamentary Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) a permanent feature to be followed by the next legislatures.
- The House adopted another supplementary resolution to observe Orphan Day on 15th of Ramadan-ul-Mubarak every year. It was tabled by a PML-N lawmaker.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House addressed two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) about investigation into the loss of lives during Faizabad sit-in and non-payment of honorarium equivalent to three basic pays for financial year 2017-18 to all employees of the Federal Government. These CANs were responded to by State Ministers for Interior and Finance respectively.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on fourteen Points of Order (POs) consuming an hour and nine minutes of the proceedings.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1315 hours which led to the suspension of the sitting for 28 minutes after count. After the resumption of sitting at 1345 hours, the Chair asked for counting the members’ requisite strength in the House which was not found to be complete and the House was adjourned to meet again on May 30, 2018 (Wednesday) at 1100 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly’s proceedings, conducted by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted.