ISLAMABAD, March 8, 2017: The National Assembly witnessed introduction of two Constitutional Amendment Bills regarding elections and delegation of powers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the 40th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for four hours and 31 minutes.
- The proceedings remained suspended for 39 minutes due to lack of quorum.
- The sitting started at 1039 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 20 minutes, the Deputy Speaker for an hour and seven minutes and a Member of Panel of Chairpersons for the rest of the proceedings.
- The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 42 minutes.
- Thirty-four lawmakers (10%) were present at the outset and eight (2%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of JI, PML-Z, QWP-S, APML, AMLP and ANP attended the sitting.
- Six minority members were present.
Output
- Minister for Law and Justice introduced the Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Constitution (Twenty-seventh Amendment) Bill, 2017 before the House.
- The House witnessed the presentation of three periodical reports of the standing committees on Commerce, Information Technology and Telecommunication and Industries and Production.
- Moved as supplementary business, the House unanimously adopted a resolution to pay tribute to women on International Women’s Day. Sixteen lawmakers spoke on the subject for an hour and 28 minutes.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as eight out of 35 Starred Questions were responded to by the government. The lawmakers also asked 15 Supplementary Questions.
- The House took up two Calling Attention Notices about not holding the annual meeting of the Council of National Highways Authority and merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Order and Institutionalization
- Opposition lawmakers staged a walkout for 21 minutes over Chair’s refusal to grant permission to speak on a supplementary agenda.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.
This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted.