ISLAMABAD, August 17, 2017: The National Assembly on Thursday passed two bills and deferred debate on the Elections Bill, 2017, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings during seventh sitting of the 44th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1616 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 12 minutes while rests of the proceedings were presided over by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• Deputy Speaker and the Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for two hours and seven minutes.
• As many as 92 (27%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 73 (21%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI, PkAMP, APML, ANP and AMLP attended the sitting.
• Six minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

• The House adopted a resolution and observed silence of one minute to pay tribute to Dr. Ruth Pfau on her demise.
• Minister for Law and Justice laid the Elections Bill, 2017 in the House but debate on the bill was deferred till next sitting on Friday.
• The House passed the Public Interest Disclosures Bill, 2017 and the Pakistan Tobacco Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017 after clause by clause reading.
• Another bill – the Establishment of Federal Bank for Cooperatives and Regulation of Cooperative Banking (Repeal) Bill, 2017 – was introduced in the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 11 out of 33 Starred Questions during the proceedings. The lawmakers asked 26 supplementary questions as well.
• A Calling Attention Notice (CAN) was taken up by the House which was regarding eighteen hours daily load-shedding in Districts Buner, Dir Upper, Dir Lower and Swat. It was responded to by the State Minister for Power.
• Another CAN about supply of contaminated water of Rawal dam to the residents of Islamabad was deferred on the request of the mover.
• The House passed a motion to elect five MNAs as members of the Board of Governors of the National Book Foundation.
• The House did not debate a Motion of Thanks about the Presidential Address.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1833 hours but it was found complete upon counting.
• Lawmakers raised four points of order consuming 12 minutes of the proceedings.

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