ISLAMABAD, August 05, 2014: The National Assembly while setting aside the entire agenda, debated the imposition of Article-245 in Islamabad on Tuesday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion to allow debate on the imposition of Article-245 in the federal capital. Earlier, the Federal Minister for Science and Technology moved a motion to suspend the agenda and discuss imposition of Article-245. Twelve members took part in the debate. The PML-N lawmakers spoke for an hour and 12 minutes, PPPP 20 minutes, AMLP 19 minutes, PkMAP 15 minutes, PTI 12 minutes, MQM 10 minutes ANP 10 minutes, JI 7 minutes, PML-Z 7 minutes and QWP 5 minutes.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings:

• The National Assembly met for three hours and 55 minutes.
• The House took a prayer and lunch break of 46 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1100 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours, witnessing a delay of 30 minutes.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for two hours and nine minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, AMLP, MQM, BNP-Awami, QWP, APML and PML-Z attended the sitting.
• Fifty-four lawmakers were present at the outset while 120 at the adjournment of the sitting. A maximum of 188 members were observed to be present at one point during the sitting.
• Seven minority members attended the sitting.
• Eight members applied for leave.

Output

• The National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion to allow debate on imposition of Article 245 in Islamabad.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Twelve members of various political parties took part in the debate. The PML-N members spoke for an hour and 12 minutes, PPPP 20 minutes, AMLP 19 minutes, PkMAP 15 minutes, PTI 12 minutes, MQM 10 minutes ANP 10 minutes, JI 7 minutes, PML-Z 7 minutes and QWP 5 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers raised 2 points of order consuming three minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to observers and the public.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of FAFEN and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. This Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI); a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions excepted