ISLAMABAD, March 9, 2017: The National Assembly approved the amendments made in the Hindu Marriage Bill, 2016 by the Senate, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of the 40^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 22 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1034 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 38 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) and Leader of Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Sixteen lawmakers (5%) were present at the outset and 58 (17%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of QWP-S, AMLP and JI attended the sitting.
• Four minority members were present.

Output

• Moved by the Minster for Human Rights, the House approved the Hindu Marriage Bill, 2016 as passed by the Senate with the amendments.
• A PML-N lawmaker presented the periodical report of the Standing Committees on Climate Change for the period July-December 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as ten out of 34 Starred Questions were responded to by the government. The lawmakers also asked 21 Supplementary Questions.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding census in Sindh province and delay in commencement of construction work on Gojra-Shorkot and Shorkot-Khanewal sections of the Motorway.
• The House adopted a motion to recommend two lawmakers belonging to PTI and PML-N as Members of Board of Governors of Federal Board of Education.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 12 Points of Order consuming 36 minutes of the sitting.
• The lawmakers belonging to MQM staged a token walkout for four minutes against reduction in census blocks ahead of national census to show the rural population greater than urban population.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted.