ISLAMABAD, August 7, 2017: The National Assembly witnessed the presentation of final report of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms and the Elections Bill, 2017 on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are the key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the 44th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for two hours and 47 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1635 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for initial 48 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 52 minutes.
- As many as 54 (16%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 112 (33%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PML-F, PkMAP, JI, ANP, APML, NP and QWP-S attended the sitting.
- Six minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms presented the final report of the committee.
- Minister for Law and Justice introduced the Elections Bill, 2017 and the National University of Technology Bill, 2017. The House adopted a motion to dispense with the requirement of referring the Elections Bill to the relevant standing committee.
- Minister of State for Power introduced Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
- Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs introduced the SBP Banking Services Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
- Chairman Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization presented the report of the committee on the Auditor General’s (Functions, Powers and Terms and Conditions of Service) (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
- Minister for Parliamentary Affairs laid an authenticated copy of the Address of the President of Pakistan to the Joint Sitting of Parliament on 1st June, 2017.
- The government also presented the Annual report of the Federal Public Service Commission for the year 2015 and third quarterly report of the Board of Directors of State Bank of Pakistan on the State of Pakistan’s Economy for the year 2016-17.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as ten out of 35 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while ten questions were dropped due to absence of the movers. The lawmakers also asked 26 supplementary questions.
- The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding non-establishment of a college for visually impaired people in Islamabad and non-payment of subsidy to fertilizer manufacturers.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on five Points of Order consuming 31 minutes of the proceedings.
- The PTI lawmakers protested for 11 minutes against allowing a female PTI legislator to speak on a Point of Order.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Information on Members’ attendance is available on the National Assembly website.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly’s proceedings, conducted by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted