ISLAMABAD, November 6, 2017: The National Assembly’s 48th session was prorogued on Monday without considering the constitutional amendment regarding reallocation of the Assembly seats among federating units, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during third (last) sitting of the 48th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for two hours and 49 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 34 minutes due to prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1630 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for 51 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
- The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition was present for 39 minutes.
- As many as 32 (9%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 43 (13%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, QWP-S, ANP, APML, AJIP and PkMAP attended the sitting.
- Six minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House did not take up the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The bill sought reallocation of National Assembly’s seats among federating units.
- The House passed the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as two out of 29 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings. The lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.
- The House took a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding the decision of government to close PIA flight operations to USA from January 2018.
- Another CAN about non-maintenance of filtration plants in Islamabad was not addressed due to absence of the concerned lawmaker.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers raised 13 Points of Order consuming 40 minutes of the proceedings.
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