ISLAMABAD, November 3, 2017: The National Assembly did not take up more than two thirds of its scheduled business including a constitutional amendment on reallocation of the Assembly seats among provinces, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during second sitting of the 48th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for two hours one minute.
- The sitting started at 1047 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for 35 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
- The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 73 (21%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 31 (9%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of BNP, JI, QWP-S, PkMAP, PML-F, AJIP, PML-Z, ANP and APML attended the sitting.
- Six minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination introduced the Islamabad Healthcare Regulation Bill, 2017. The bill was referred to the relevant standing committee.
- The Minister for Human Rights presented the Annual report of the National Commission on the Status of Women for the year 2015-16 in the House.
- The House did not take up the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as 10 out of 33 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings. The lawmakers asked 28 supplementary questions as well.
- The House deferred two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) due to absence of the concerned ministers. The CANs highlighted the issues related to maintenance of filtration plants in Islamabad and land encroachment in Oversees Pakistanis Foundation Housing Colony.
- The House did not take up the Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address to the Parliament.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers raised 11 Points of Order consuming 47 minutes of the proceedings.
- The parliamentary leader of BNP-M staged a token walkout for eight minutes against the arrest of women and children in Quetta.
- The parliamentary leader of ANP also walked out from the proceedings at 1220 hours after complaining about the discriminatory attitude of the Chair against him. He did not return back to the proceedings until the adjournment of the sitting.
- The House observed a minute of silence to pay respect to Dina Wadia, daughter of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, on her demise.
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