ISLAMABAD, December 15, 2016: The National Assembly left entire agenda unaddressed during the 2nd sitting of its 38th session on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
The sitting started two hours and one minute behind the scheduled time with 118 legislators (35%) present at the start and 108 (32%) at the time of adjournment.
The unaddressed agenda included three bills, three reports of the Standing Committees, two Calling Attention Notices (CANs), a motion of thanks, presentation of report on 2nd Biannual Monitoring on the implementation of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
Following are key observations of the proceedings:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for two hours and one minute.
- The sitting started at 1801 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) was not present.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
- A total of 118 lawmakers (35%) were present at the outset and 108 (32%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PPPP, PML-Z, PML-F, JI and APML attended the sitting.
- Five minority members were present.
Output
- The House did not take up any agenda item on Orders of the Day.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House passed a motion to suspend the question Hour.
Order and Institutionalization
- Eight Points of Order (POs) consumed 110 minutes (91%) of the proceedings. The treasury and Opposition lawmakers had heated debates through these POs on Panama Papers issue.
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.