ISLAMABAD, June 5, 2010: The Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue presented the budgetary proposals at the third sitting of the 23rd session of the National Assembly. The sitting started late by an hour and two minutes and lasted an hour and 20 minutes, reports the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on the Third Sitting of the 23rd Session of the National Assembly proceedings.
The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:
Members’ participation in House proceedings
- The National Assembly met for an hour and 20 minutes.
- The third sitting started at 1802 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The House proceedings started late by 62 minutes.
- The Speaker of the House chaired the sitting. The Deputy Speaker was also present during the proceedings.
- The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were present during the entire sitting.
- Parliamentary leaders of PML, MQM, ANP, PPPS and PMLF were present while the leaders of NPP, MMAP, and BNPA were absent.
- The Chief Whips of PPPP, PMLN, PML, ANP, PPPS and PMLF were present, while those of MQM, MMAP, NPP and BNPA were absent.
- A total of 246 (72%) members were present at the outset of the sitting, while 232 (68%) at the end of the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Minister for Finance and Revenue addressed the House for 70 minutes.
- There was no other agenda on the Orders of the Day.
Output
- There was one bill [The Finance Bill, 2010] on the Orders of the Day which was taken up by the House.
- The report on the ‘Demands of Grants” was presented before the House.
Order and institutionalization
- There was no Adjournment Motion on the Orders of the Day.
- There were no instances of boycotts, walkouts or protest during the sitting. Speaker disallowed mike to a female member of the PML who wanted to raise a point of order.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day was available to legislators, observers and others.
- Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
- The copies of the budget speech were available to the concerned.
The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN