ISLAMABAD, July 29, 2013: The National Assembly on Monday adopted a motion during the first sitting of the third session to allow the use of the lower house for the polling of the Presidential election.

The presidential election will be held on Tuesday, July 30.

The Speaker chaired the sitting, which witnessed 245 members at the beginning of the proceedings, 102 at the adjournment and 289 MNAs at the time of maximum attendance. The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 65 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was absent.

Tabled by Minister for Religious Affairs, the house adopted a supplementary resolution to condemn the attacks on shrines in Syria.

PPPP members attended the proceedings wearing black bands on their arms to protest against the rescheduling of the Presidential election. The party’s MNAs boycotted the sitting nearly an hour before its adjournment. Additionally, the JI and PTI MNAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa staged a token walkout to protest against the prolonged load shedding in their province.

The House offered fatiha on the demise of the Leader of the Opposition’s sister and the deaths of 60 people in the Parachinar bomb blasts.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and three minutes.
• The sitting started at 1630 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours, witnessing a delay of 30 minutes.
• The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were present. The Speaker chaired the proceedings.
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 65 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was absent.
• A total of 245 MNAs were present at the outset while 102 MNAs were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum 289 MNAs (89%) were there at one point of sitting.
• Nine minority members attended the sitting.
• Two members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsivenes

• Tabled by Minister for Religious Affairs, the house adopted a supplementary resolution to condemn the attacks on shrines in Syria.
•  The house took up two Calling attention Notices to seek the government’s assurance on the theft of gas in Gujranwala by influential people and on supply of unpotable water from 25 water filtration plants and the closure of 11 such plants in Islamabad.
• Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs and Statistics presented before the National Assembly the Third Quarterly Report for the year 2012-2013 of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Pakistan’s economy as required by section 9A(f) of the State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1956

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on 29 points of Order consuming 96 minutes of the proceedings.
• PPPP MNAs boycotted the sitting about an hour before the adjournment of the proceedings to protest agasint the change in the schedule of the Presidential Election, while the JI and PTI MNAs from Khyber PakhtunKhwa staged a 19-minute token walkout on prolonged load shedding in their province.

Transparency

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

The 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