Unfinished agenda marks NA session, says report

ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: Unfinished agenda, low attendance, persistent lack of quorum and interruption of regular proceedings by points of order raised by members marked the recently-concluded session of the National Assembly, says a report of an independent observers` group. The National Assembly which met for 27 hours and 20 minutes for 10 sittings could take up only 36 per cent of the agenda, primarily because the members consumed most of the time in speeches on various points of order, a report of the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) said here on Sunday. It said the members raised a total of 182 points of order that consumed more than one-third of the total session time — 603 out of 1,640 minutes. On the other hand, the National Assembly did not take up for discussion 10 motions under Rule 259, 10 resolutions, seven government bills, five private members` bills and two matters of public importance that had been placed on the agenda. As many as 63 points of order were raised by members belonging to the People`s Party, 46 by those belonging to PML-N, 25 by those belonging to PML-Q, 24 by those belonging to MQM, 11 by independents, five by JUI-F legislators and four each by Awami National Party and PPP-S lawmakers. Unless the speaker gives a formal ruling on a point of order, speeches and rejoinders do not contribute to any assembly output and only provide media with news pegs. Most of the parliamentary experts believe that allowing the members to speak on various issues on points of order is basically a misuse of the rules. They are of the view that it is useless to speak on any issue, if a member does not get any response from the treasury benches. Under the rules, a member can raise a point of order if he notices any violation of the rules or Constitution and the speaker is bound to give a ruling on it. However, like the previous National Assembly, the speaker allows members to deliver speeches on points of order and raise any issue they want. About 60 per cent of the members participated in the session either by submitting agenda items or by actually participating in the debates on the floor of the house. A total of 206 members — 162 men and 44 women — participated. According to the report, the male members were more active than their female counterparts, with their participation being recorded at 61 per cent of their total membership (264) and female participation at 58 per cent. According to a party-wise analysis, PML-N members showed the highest participation in proportion to their membership as 78 per cent of the party MNAs took part in proceedings, followed by 76 per cent of the MQM, 57 per cent of the PPP, 52 per cent of PML-Q, 46 per cent of ANP members and 25 per cent of JUI-F. While the members` participation registered a slight improvement, their attendance remained low. Since the National Assembly Secretariat does not make the attendance record public, Fafen conducts a headcount of members at the beginning and end of each sitting and documents the actual time spent on the floor of the house by the speaker, the deputy speaker, the prime minister and leader of the opposition. During the 28th session, on an average 65 members in a house of 342 were present at the start of each sitting and 72 at the end. The lack of quorum was called only once during the entire session by a female PPP legislator and she attracted ire from her party for her action. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani attended all 10 sittings for 328 minutes (20 per cent of the total session time). Leader of Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was absent during six sittings, but attended four sittings for 233 minutes (14 per cent of the total session time). The house passed three government and one private members` bill during the 28th session. The adjournment motion on the increase in prices of items of daily use was admitted for debate on the initiative of PML-N members and was debated for 112 minutes during the fourth and fifth sitting. The house witnessed three walkouts during the session. The PML-N members protested as one of their MNAs was not allowed to raise a point of order. At another instance, members of the MQM and PML-N got into a fight, after one of the MQM members raised some concerns over the law and order situation in Punjab on a point of order. Both the parties started raising slogans against each other, which forced the deputy speaker to adjourn the proceedings. The ANP members staged a walkout on non-allocation of development funds to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.