ISLAMABAD, June 9, 2010: The low attendance fifth sitting of the 23^rd session met for three hours and thirty eight minutes, with 76 members present at the outset and 90 members at the end. The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 59 minutes while the Leader of Opposition remained absent, reports the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on the Fifth Sitting of the 23^rd Session of the National Assembly proceedings.

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for 03 hour and 38 minutes.
• The fifth sitting started at 1137 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1100 hours. The House proceedings started late by 37 minutes.
• Nawab Yousaf Talpur (Panel of Chairpersons) chaired the 77 minutes of the sitting, while the remaining time was chaired by the Speaker. The Deputy Speaker was also present during the proceedings for 30 minutes.
• The House took a break of 33 minutes on the account of prayers
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 59 minutes, while the Leader of the Opposition remained absent.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML, MMAP, ANP, MQM and PPPS were present while the leaders of PMLF, NPP and BNPA were absent.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, PMLN, PML, ANP, MQM, MMAP, PPPS and PMLF were present, while those of NPP and BNPA were absent.
• 07 Members appealed for leave to be absent from the sitting
• A total of 76(22%) members were present at the outset of the sitting, while 90 (26%) at the end of the sitting.
• A total of 8 minority members were present during the fifth sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 6 legislators addressed on the budgetary proposals presented in the third sitting.
• Two out of 6 members belonged to PMLN, who spoke for a total of 47 minutes. 2 members of PML addressed the house for a total of 66 minutes. One member of MQM took 59 minutes, while one PMLF legislator spoke on the budget for 22 minutes.
• The Minister for Finance and Revenue was not present during the proceedings.

Output

• The House debated on the Finance Bill, 2010 presented in the third sitting.

Order and institutionalization

• There was no Adjournment Motion on the Orders of the Day.
• There was no instance of protest, boycott or walkout during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The copies of the budget speech were available to the concerned.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN