ISLAMABAD, January 17, 2019: The National Assembly did not take up a government motion for discussion on energy situation and spent its time discussing political as well as agricultural issues on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for three hours and 40 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 58 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1112 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of House (Prime Minister) was not present.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 51 minutes.
• As many as 34 lawmakers (10%) were present at the outset and 69 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, MMAP and BAP attended the sitting.
• As many as seven out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs presented the Annual Report of the Federal Public Service Commission for the year 2017.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government answered 11 out of 63 Starred Questions while remaining 52 questions were not taken up. These questions were addressed to the Ministries of Interior; Planning, Development and Reform; Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs; Statistics, Narcotics Control and Prime Minister’s Office. The lawmakers asked 23 supplementary questions as well.
• The Minister for Aviation Division responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding closure of Swat airport. The notice was discussed during last sitting as well.
• The Chair deferred a CAN regarding grievances of the farmers due to absence of relevant minister.
• The House did not take up a motion under Rule 259 and a Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament on September 17, 2018.

Order and Institutionalization 

• As many as two lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming seven minutes of the proceedings.
• As many as 14 lawmakers spoke on various matters concerning politics and agriculture under Rule 18 consuming an hour and 14 minutes.
• An MMAP lawmaker walked out from the proceedings at 1126 hours for exclusion of his questions in the agenda. He did not return till adjournment of the sitting.
• An MMAP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1450 hours but it was ignored by the Chair. Upon insistence on the headcount by the opposition lawmakers, the Chair adjourned the proceeding to meet again on January 18, 2019 (Friday) at 1030 hours.

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers is available on the National Assembly’s website.

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