ISLAMABAD, May 17, 2017: The National Assembly addressed its entire agenda including consideration and passage of two government bills on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the 42nd session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for two hours and 30 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1035 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 29 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of proceedings.
- The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 38 minutes.
- Forty-four lawmakers (13%) were present at the outset and 52 (15%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The Parliamentary leaders of MQM, JUI-F, JI, PkMAP, QWP-S, ANP and AMLP attended the sitting.
- Five minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House passed the National School of Public Policy (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Marine Insurance Bill, 2017 with the amendments made by the Senate in these bills.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as 15 out of 34 Starred Questions were responded to by the government. The lawmakers asked 42 Supplementary Questions as well.
- The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding housing schemes of Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation and Pakistan Housing Foundation; and discrimination in disbursement of loans under Prime Minister’s Youth Programme.
Order and Institutionalization
- Lawmakers raised three Points of Order consuming ten minutes of the sitting.
- Ten lawmakers spoke on Matters of Public Importance under Rule 18 consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.
- MQM lawmakers staged a walkout against load shedding and mismanagement of K-Electric at 1219 hours. They did not return to the House.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- 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.