ISLAMABAD, January 18, 2019: The National Assembly approved setting up a committee of the Parliamentary Leaders to regulate the conduct of its members, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for two hours and eight minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 17 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1042 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 15 minutes.
• As many as 26 lawmakers (8%) were present at the outset and 72 (21%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP and BAP attended the sitting.
• As many as five out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented the report of the committee on the Islamabad High Court (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The Committee recommended to pass the bill as introduced in the National Assembly despite note of dissent by seven lawmakers.
• The House adopted a motion under Rule 244 (B) authorizing the Speaker to constitute a Committee of the Parliamentary Leaders in the National Assembly to regulate the conduct of Members.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government answered seven out of 24 Starred Questions while remaining 17 questions were not taken up. These questions were addressed to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Overseas Pakistan and Human Resource Development; Inter-Provincial Coordination and Commerce and Textile. The lawmakers asked 16 supplementary questions as well.
• The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) about usage of multiple identification techniques (e.g. eye-scan) for processing CNICs, mobile SIMs, Bank accounts, etc.
• The Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce responded to a CAN on grievances of farmers concerning delay in exporting vegetables and fruits.
• The House did not take up a motion under Rule 259 and a Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament on September 17, 2018.

 Order and Institutionalization 

• As many as three lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 11 minutes of the proceedings.
• An MMAP lawmaker walked out from the proceedings for five minutes against exclusion of his questions from the agenda.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1114 hours that led to the headcount followed by the suspension of the sitting for 17 minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 21, 2019 (Monday) at 1700 hours.

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers is available on the National Assembly’s website.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted