ISLAMABAD, April 30, 2019: The National Assembly witnessed introduction  of eleven private members’ bill including the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill on Tuesday and referred all of them to the relevant Standing Committees for further consideration, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 39 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 27 minutes due to prayer breaks.
• The proceedings started at 1620 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 33 lawmakers (10%) were present at the outset and 105 (31%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of GDA, BAP, MQM and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Six out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output 

• The House witnessed introduction of eleven private members’ bills which were the Control of Narcotics Substances (Amendment) Bill 2019; the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 1, 5, 59, 106, 175 A and 2018); the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2019; the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 1, 5, 59, 106, 154, 175 A, 198 and 2018; the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 51, 76 and 106); the Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Pakistan Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019;  the Islamabad Capital Territory Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill, 2019; the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Section 489F) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 51 and 106). All these bills were referred to the committees for further consideration.
• The motion to introduce the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2019 was passed with majority vote. A total of 72 lawmakers voted in favor of the motion and 50 members opposed it.
• The House rejected four motions seeking leave to introduce as many private members’ bills. These bills were the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Section 365C); the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Naturalization (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Un-attended Orphans (Rehabilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2019.
• Moved by a PTI lawmaker, the House adopted two resolutions. The first resolution, in connection with Labor Day, expressed determination to protect rights of laborers while other demanded to restore the regulatory customs duty on cotton import, set minimum support price for the crop and encourage cotton cultivation in the country.
• The House did not consider eight other Private Members’ Bills, four reports of the Standing Committees, Amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly 2007, five resolutions and as many motions under Rule 259, two Calling Attention Notices and debate on matters of urgent public importance under Rule 187.
• Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources gave a policy statement about referring the matter of determining petroleum prices to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on May 2, 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