ISLAMABAD, June 03, 2011: The Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue presented the budgetary proposals during the first sitting of the 31^st session of the National Assembly. The sitting started late by an hour and ten minutes, and lasted fifty minutes.

The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were present during the course of the sitting. The parliamentary party of the PMLN protested during the entire sitting by chanting slogans against the budget proposals.

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1810 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The House proceedings started late by 70 minutes.
• The Speaker of the House chaired the sitting. The Deputy Speaker was also present during the proceedings.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were present during the entire sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of the MMAP, MQM, ANP, PPPS and PMLF were present while the leaders of NPP, PML, and BNPA were absent.
• The Chief Whips of the PPPP, PMLN, PML, MMAP, ANP and PMLF were present, while those of MQM, NPP and BNPA were absent.
• A total of 242 (70%) Members were present at the outset of the sitting, while 282 (83%) at the end of the sitting.
• A total of six out of 10 minority Members were present during the first sitting

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Finance and Revenue addressed the House for 43 minutes.
• There was no other agenda on the Orders of the Day.

 Output

• There was one bill [The Finance Bill, 2010] on the Orders of the Day which was taken up by the House.
• The report on the ‘Demands of Grants’ was presented before the House.

Order and institutionalization

• There was no Adjournment Motion on the Orders of the Day.
• Members of the PMLN chanted slogans against the budget speech for the entire duration of the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The copies of the budget speech were available to the concerned.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN