ISLAMABAD, December 24, 2018: The Senate was prorogued sine die on Monday without addressing its scheduled business amidst lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during seventh and last sitting of 285th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and one minute; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 28 minutes.
- The sitting started on its scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman was absent.
- The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition was not present.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PkMAP and NP were present.
- As many as 15 Senators (14% of the total membership) were present at the outset and nine (8%) at the end of the sitting.
- Only one out of four minority Senators attended the proceedings.
Output
- The House did not take up any of the sitting’s agenda that included three private members’ bills, five private members resolutions and as many motions under Rule 218.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as two lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 21 minutes.
- The opposition parties walked out from proceedings at 1426 hours in protest against the refusal by the Chairman to allow an unscheduled discussion on the cases against political leaders.
- A PPPP lawmakers identified the lack of quorum at 1428 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes followed by the suspension of proceedings. However, the Chairman prorogued the session on finding the House without quorum on the resumption of the proceedings at 1501 hours.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- The attendance of lawmakers is available on the website.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted