The 20th constitutional amendment, providing for an independent election commission, was passed during the 39th session of the National Assembly, held from February 1-14, 2012. The House also passed the Private Power and Infrastructure Board Bill 2011 and the Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Bill 2009.
Three Private Members’ Bills were introduced and sent to the respective Standing Committees. These pertained to the Pakistan Sports Board, criminal law amendment and compulsory declaration of assets of Members.
The National Assembly adopted three Resolutions. Moved by the PMLN Members, the first Resolution was against the United States congressional hearing on Balochistan and drone attacks. The second was about setting up a parliamentary medical caucus to provide health facilities to people while the third was for reducing the prices of petroleum products.
The House took up 15 Calling Attention Notices raised by 27 male and 18 female Members. Twenty one of these Members represented PMLN, 12 were affiliated with MQM, eight with PPPP, two were from MMAP, one from PML and one an independent Member.
The 39th session that spread over 10 sittings, met for a little over 23 hours. Each sitting on average lasted two hours and 31 minutes. Similarly, each sitting started with an average delay of an hour and 12 minutes.
More than half (56%) of the Agenda items that appeared on the Orders of the Day were left unaddressed, primarily due to 150 Points of Order which consumed 34% of the total session time – 474 of the 1,386 minutes. Since none of the Points of Order received a formal ruling from the Chair, they did not contribute to any output in the House’s proceedings.
The agenda for Private Members’ Day was ambitious, making it difficult for the House to complete it in a single sitting.
Overall 46% of the Members – 113 male and 42 female – participated in the session by submitting Agenda items on the Orders of the Day or by taking part in the debates. Fifty-five percent of the total 76 female Members participated actively in the House’s proceedings, in contrast to 44% of the total 258 male Members.
A party-wise analysis shows that 84% of the MQM parliamentarians took part in the proceedings, followed by MMAP (63%), PMLN (56%), PPPP (42%), PML (30%) and ANP (25%). The attendance of Members was relatively better than the previous sessions – on average 94 parliamentarians being present at the beginning of each sitting and 93 at the end.
The Prime Minister attended seven sittings for 26% (360 minutes) and the Leader of the Opposition was present during four sittings for 16% (227 minutes) of the session time. The Speaker chaired the proceedings for 23% and the Deputy Speaker 64% of the session time. The remaining 13% of the time was presided over by Members of Panel of Chairpersons.
The parliamentary leaders of MMAP and BNPA attended seven sittings each and ANP and PMLF six each. The PML and MQM leaders did not attend any sitting.
The House witnessed one walkout and three protests. A PMLN member walked out for five minutes in protest against remarks of the interior minister about involvement of Chitrali people in Karachi violence.
The first protest was by the PMLN and MQM Members against increase in prices of petroleum products. The second was by MQM Members against target killings in Karachi while the third was by a PMLN member against the non-release of development funds.
FAFEN hopes this report will be a valuable contribution to creating a more informed citizenry and an increasingly responsible Parliament.
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