ISLAMABAD, January 1, 2016: The National Assembly took entire agenda amid low attendance of lawmakers during the 1st sitting of its 28th session on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:
Members’ Participation in House Proceeding
- The National Assembly met for an hour and 37 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1543 hours against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 70 minutes.
- Eleven Ministers attended the sitting.
- 59 MNAs (17%) were present at the outset and 34 (10%) at adjournment of the sitting
- The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PTI, AMLP, JUI-F, PML-Z and APML were present.
- Five minority members were present.
Output
- The Minister for Finance introduced the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Financial Institutions (Secured Transactions) Bill, 2016 which were referred to the relevant committee for further deliberations.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up two calling attention notices (CANs) regarding 20% children unrolled in schools and increase in the prices of natural gas.
- Four lawmakers including two lawmakers of PTI and one each of PPPP and JI spoke for 30 minutes on a motion of thanks regarding address of President to both Houses on June 4, 2015.
Order and Institutionalization
- Lawmakers spoke on eight Points of Order consuming 25 minutes of the proceeding of the House.
- MQM lawmakers walked out of the House at 1710 hours over non-issuance of CNICs in Karachi. They did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.
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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted