ISLAMABAD, Nov 4: The National Assembly Secretariat failed to take up for discussion on the floor of the house a number of privilege motions, calling attention notices, adjournment motions and other matters raised by public representatives during the second parliamentary year.
Sources in the assembly secretariat said only 10 per cent of the questions were answered on the floor of the house as the designated Question Hour was "sometimes conducted in a manner which consumed time in violation of Rule 66 of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business 1992".
During the question hour, instead of three supplementary questions, National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain occasionally allowed more than the designated number of MNAs to speak.
On other occasions, the question hour was simply done away with to carry out other legislative business thus depriving the issues raised by public representatives to be answered by the relevant ministers.
According to officials, the National Assembly Secretariat received 12,008 questions of which only 2,462 were debated on the floor of the house.
On matters of 'urgent public importance', the National Assembly Secretariat failed to dispense with more than 900 calling attention notices.
"A total of 1,034 calling attention notices were received during the second parliamentary year of which statements were made only on 104 while another four were referred to the standing committees.
Similarly, the National Assembly did not hold any discussion on almost a 100 matters of 'public importance' raised through Motions under Rule 69.
The assembly secretariat sources said 106 'Motions Under Rule 69' were received of which only five were discussed in the house during the second parliamentary year.
The rules of procedure provide that last half an hour of Tuesday's sitting should be allocated for discussion on a matter of 'sufficient public importance', to which the ministers concerned are obliged to respond.
When asked about the number of privilege motions, the sources said 146 were received by the secretariat out of which 46 were brought before the house and 28 referred to the privileges committee.
The speaker ruled five privilege motions as out of order, reserved his ruling on four and deferred six of them. He also resolved eight privilege motions in his chamber.
Officials said three privilege motions were dropped due to absence of the movers while another four were withdrawn. Some 41 privilege motions lapsed during the year.
In response to a question about adjournment motions, the assembly secretariat sources said a total of 447 were received and only 69 were brought before the house. Only 47 of the total 69 adjournment motions were discussed in the house for two hours.
The sources said the speaker determined the admissibility of adjournment motions depending upon the urgency of a matter of public importance.
The officials said 140 adjournment motions lapsed while five of them were withdrawn.
The speaker held 233 adjournment motions as inadmissible, ruled eight of them as out of order and reserved ruling on four of them. Due to absence of the movers, seven motions were dropped in the house, one was deferred while two were rejected in the house.