ISLAMABAD, February 7, 2017: The National Assembly passed two Private Members’ bills, adopted two resolutions and witnessed introduction of two other bills, which were sent to the relevant committees on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during ninth and last sitting of the 39th session:
Members’ Participation
- The National Assembly met for three hours and six minutes.
- The sitting started at 1034 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
- The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Fourteen lawmakers (4%) were present at the outset and 65 (19%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, PML, ANP, APML, AMLP, PML-Z and QWP-S attended the sitting.
- Five minority members were present.
Output
- The House passed the Compulsory Blood Test of the Relatives of Thalassemia Patient Bill, 2016 and the National Commission on the Status of Women (Amendment) Bill, 2016 sponsored by PPPP and MQM lawmakers respectively.
- PML-N and MQM lawmakers introduced the Compulsory Sewage Water Management and Reprocessing Bill, 2017 and the Federal Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2017 respectively. Both bills were referred to relevant standing committees.
- JI lawmakers did not introduce the Trade Organizations (Amendment) Bill, 2017 on the assurance of government to bring a similar legislation.
- The House deferred the Political Parties Order (Amendment) Bill, 2013 till next session.
- The House also adopted two Private Members’ resolutions urging the government to improve the performance of Pakistan Television (PTV) and simplify the procedure of payment of pension. The lawmakers discussed these resolutions for 27 minutes.
- Four Private Members’ resolutions and an amendment to Rules of Procedure were not taken up.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CAN) regarding non-inclusion of a column for persons with disabilities in the National Census Form and increase in electricity tariff by Karachi Electric.
- Five Motions under Rule 259 were not taken up.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on 17 Points of Order (PO) consuming 51 minutes of proceedings. They discussed the FATA reforms issue on POs.
- PPPP and JI lawmakers staged a walkout for seven minutes against the absence of ministers.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1337 hours following which the session was prorogued.
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.