ISLAMABAD, December 22, 2021: The National Assembly left entire agenda unaddressed on Wednesday due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the 39th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for 21 minutes.
- The sitting started at 04:46 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
- The speaker chaired the entire sitting.
- The deputy speaker was not preset.
- The leaders of the house (Prime Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 98 (29 percent) lawmakers were present at the outset and 78 (23 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- Parliamentary leader of PML-N and GDA attended the sitting.
- Six minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House did not take up legislative business, six resolutions seeking extension of as many ordinances, five reports of standing committees and four statutory reports.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House neither observed question hour not took up two calling attention notices.
- A motion of thanks to the President for his address to both Houses was not taken up.
Order and Institutionalization
- A PPPP lawmaker spoke on a point of order for two minutes. Later, he pointed out the quorum at 05:02 pm following which the opposition also walked out from the proceedings against reliance of the incumbent government on ordinances for legislation. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting the House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, December 24, 2021 at 11:00 am.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to legislators, observers and public.
- Attendance of lawmakers was available to 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