ISLAMABAD, January 24, 2019: The National Assembly did not address 77 percent private Members’ business scheduled for Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for 54 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1818 hours against the scheduled time of 1630 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 26 minutes while a member of Panel of Chairperson chaired rest of the sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was not present.
• As many as 98 lawmakers (29%) were present at the outset and 134 (39%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JWP, BAP, PML-N, PPPP and PML attended the sitting.
• As many as six out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output  

• The lawmakers belonging to PTI and MMAP and an independent lawmaker introduced the Microfinance Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 37), and the National Database and Registration Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019.  The House referred the bills to the relevant standing committees.
• Moved by a PML-N lawmaker, the House rejected the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 198) as the treasury benches opposed the bill.
• The Chair deferred the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Emigration (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The bills were sponsored by MQM and PTI lawmakers.
• The House did not take up the remaining private members’ business which included 11 private members’ bills, proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007, five resolutions, as many motions under Rule 259 and debate on the matters of urgent public importance under Rule 87.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as two lawmakers including the Minister for Communications and Postal Services spoke on Points of Order (POs) consuming 15 minutes of the proceedings.
• The opposition lawmakers protested for ten minutes against the speech of the Minister for Communications and Postal Services.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 25, 2019 (Friday) at 1000 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.