ISLAMABAD, November 25, 2015: The National Assembly addressed its entire agenda except for a motion of thanks on Wednesday during fourth sitting of ongoing 26th session, 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 two hours and 35 minutes
- The sitting started at 1040 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting
- The Prime Minister attended the proceeding for fifty minutes
- The Leader of the Opposition was not present
- 37 MNAs (11%) were present at outset and 41 (12%) at adjournment of the sitting
- The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, APML, and JUI-F were present
- Four minority members were present
Output
- The House passed three government bills namely the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Stock Exchanges (Corporatization, Demutualization and Integration) (Amendment) Bill, 2015. The bills were moved by the Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization.
- The House deferred passage of a government bill titled the Pakistan Halal Authority Bill, 2015. Two lawmakers belonging to JUI-F including a female member made some reservations on it.
- The House witnessed the introduction of the Deposit Protection Corporation Bill, 2015 and the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
- Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization laid before the National Assembly the Government Bai-Muajjal Financing Facility Rules, 2015.
- Chairman Standing Committee on Law, Justice & Human Rights presented the report of the committee on the Publication of Laws of Pakistan Bill, 2015.
- In connection with the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women, the National Assembly also passed a supplementary resolution urging government to take steps to curb violence against women.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up two Calling Attention Notices. One of these CAN was related to non-functioning of Polytechnic Institute, Merabagwal, and Government College Sihala, Islamabad established 26 and 2 years ago respectively. The Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division responded to it.
- The other CAN was regarding the death sentence of various politicians including Mr. Ali Ahsan Mujahid, Secretary General of Jamat-e-Islami, Bangladesh and Mr. Salahuddin Qadir leader of the BNB by the so called International Tribunal in Bangladesh in violation of agreement executed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and India in 1974. It was responded to by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs.
- The relevant ministers orally responded to 10 of the 57 starred questions appearing on the agenda. The members also asked 10 supplementary questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- A minority member belonging to PML-N raised a matter under Rule 18 regarding murder attempt on him during Local Government polls in Sindh.
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