The sessions of the upper and lower houses of the parliament in July were marked by the speedy passage of the contempt of court bill ahead of the hearing on the National Reconciliation Ordinance implementation case amid protests by the PMLN and other members of the opposition.

The 13-clause bill exempting public office holders from contempt of the apex court was passed in the second sitting of the 44th session of the National Assembly, held between 6th and 13th July by simple majority in an hour and eight minutes. A total of 150 MNAs, including 124 treasury and 26 opposition members, were present during the passage of the bill. Despite the Senate’s endorsement in its sitting of 11th July, the Chief Justice declared the bill as null and void on 3rd August 2012.

Perhaps because of the inclusion of the contempt bill on the agenda, and given its implications on the powers and rights of members of the Parliament and the judiciary, more members attended the session as quorum was maintained towards the end of each of the six sittings. On average, 124 members were present at the end of the sittings, while 71 were present at the beginning.

In addition to the contempt of court bill, the Validation Ordinance 2012 giving cover to acts, orders, and instruments issued by the ousted prime minister during the period between his conviction and formal disqualification (April 26-June 19, 2012) was also placed before the House.

Other legislative business included the passage of two more treasury backed bills – the Special Economic Zones Bill 2012, and the Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Bill 2012. Two other ordinances – the Transfer of Railways (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 and the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan Ordinance 2012 were also laid before the House.

Although the government and opposition members were visibly engaged in discussions on the contempt of court bill, the overall participation, whether through submission of agenda items or debates on the floor, was low. Less than a third of legislators (out of the current membership of 340) participated in the six sittings of session.

Since the National Assembly Secretariat does not make members’ attendance record public, FAFEN conducts a headcount of at the beginning and end of each sitting and documents the actual time spent on the floor of the House by the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

The Prime Minister attended three sittings for 232 minutes (30%) while the Leader of the Opposition did not attend any sitting. The Speaker chaired the proceedings for 16% of the session time and the Deputy Speaker 66%, with the remaining 13% of the time presided over by members of panel of chairpersons.

The session on average met for two hours and 11 minutes per sitting. On average, each sitting was delayed by an hour.

Ninety seven Starred questions requiring oral responses were on the agenda during the session, of which 26 were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministries. Additionally, 53 supplementary questions were also asked. The PMLN legislators asked the most 126 questions, followed by MQM (36), ANP (eight), PPPP (seven) and Independents (six).

Most of the questions, 27 in all, were directed to the Ministry of Interior, followed by the Cabinet Secretariat (24), Finance and Revenue (18), Petroleum and Natural Recourses (17), Water and Power (14), Railways (10) and the Ministry of Commerce (eight).

Twenty-eight members – 17 male and 11 female – sponsored eight calling attention notices, out of which six were taken up by the House. The National Assembly also adopted three resolutions on child rights in Pakistan, killings of Muslims in Burma and tribute to Fatima Jinnah.

Fifty-eight points of order consumed 29% of the total session time – 225 of the 785 minutes. No point of order attracted the chair’s formal ruling. Without the Chair’s formal ruling, these points of order do not lead to any assembly output.

Three walkouts during the session consumed two hours and 43 minutes. The PMLN legislators walked out twice – first for five minutes to protest the reopening of the NATO supplies and again for 132 minutes against the passage of Contempt of Court Bill 2012. During the sixth sitting the ANP legislators walked out for 26 minutes, protesting the blast at their party’s rally near Quetta.

For complete report click here