ISLAMABAD, April 24, 2019: The National Assembly held first reading of a government-sponsored bill aimed at curbing criminal activities against children and referred it to the Standing Committee on Human Rights for a thorough review, observes Free and Fair Election (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the ninth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 10 minutes.
• The proceedings started at 1112 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 39 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 43 lawmakers (13%) were present at the outset and 123 (36%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of BNP, ANP, GDA, PML-N, BAP, MMAP and PML attended the sitting.
• As many as six out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output 

• The Minister for Human Rights introduced the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Bill, 2019. The bill provides for raising alerts, response and recovery of missing and abducted children. The House referred the bill to the Standing Committee on Human Rights for further deliberation.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN), sponsored by BNP lawmaker, highlighting the relief measures for the affectees of recent floods in Balochistan.
• The Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce responded to a CAN, sponsored by PPPP lawmakers, concerning trade barriers to export dates.
• The House did not take up the Motion under Rule 259 and Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament.
• The House took up seven out of 29 Starred Questions addressed to the Ministries of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development; Commerce and Textile; Inter-Provincial Coordination and States and Frontier Regions. The lawmakers also asked 16 supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PTI lawmaker spoke on a point of personal explanation for 11 minutes.
• Four lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 52 minutes. They highlighted issues related to political situation as well human rights issues and proceedings of the House.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on April 25, 2019 (Thursday) at 1100 hours.

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 are excepted