• Budget session concludes after PM speech

ISLAMABAD, June 30, 2021: The Budget Session of the National Assembly concluded here on Wednesday after speech of the Prime Minister and approval of 174 supplementary demands for grants of the last three fiscal years, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 19th and last sitting of the 34th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for six hours and 35 minutes.
• The proceedings started at 11:50 am against the scheduled time of 11:30 am.
• The speaker presided over the proceedings for two hours and 59 minutes, while the remaining sitting was chaired by the deputy speaker.
• The leader of the House (Prime Minister) attended the sitting for an hour and 36 minutes.
• The leader of the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• A total of 73 lawmakers (21 percent) were present at the outset and 268 (78 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PPPP, BAP, JWP, MQMP, AMLP, PML, MMAP and GDA attended the sitting.
• Eight out of ten minority lawmakers were also present during the proceedings.

Output

• The House approved 174 supplementary demands for grants including 49 grants of the fiscal year 2020-21, 44 grants of the fiscal year 2019-20 and 81 grants of fiscal year 2018-19.
• Minister of Finance and Revenue tabled the schedule of authorized expenditure 2021-22 and the supplementary schedule of authorized expenditure 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Thirteen lawmakers participated in the general discussion on regular and technical supplementary grants for the financial year 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19. They spoke on it for an hour and 49 minutes while the Minister for Finance winded up debate on it.
• Prime Minister spoke on the economic plan, electoral reforms, governance issues, foreign affairs, government’s strategy to combat COVID-19 pandemic and reforms in agriculture sector. He consumed an hour and 28 minutes of the proceedings.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers spoke on points of order for 39 minutes. A PPPP lawmaker spoke on a point of personal explanation for nine minutes.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

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’s proceedings, conducted by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions excepted