• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, January 21, 2022: The National Assembly addressed two-third agenda on Friday and adopted two resolutions to extend as many ordinances, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during ninth and last sitting of the 40th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 25 minutes.
• The sitting started at 10:37 am against the scheduled time of 10:30 am.
• The speaker chaired the sitting for an hour and 16 minutes while the remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of presiding officers.
• The deputy speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The leaders of the house (Prime Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 35 (10 percent) lawmakers were present at the outset and 96 (28 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML-N and AMLP attended the sitting.
• Five minority lawmaker were present.

 Output

• The House adopted two resolutions to extend the Diplomatic and Consular Officers (Oath and Fees) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 and the National Rahmatul-Lil-Aalameen Authority Ordinance, 2021 for a further period of 120 days with effect from February 9, 2022.
• Minister of state for parliamentary affairs presented the statement of contingent liabilities of the federal government for the current fiscal year.
• Parliamentary secretary for law presented the annual reports of the Council of Islamic Ideology for the period from 2012-2018, and the report on Islamic law of inheritance.
• Minister for energy introduced the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (Amendment) Bill, 2022 which was referred to the relevant committee.
• Three reports of standing committees on as many legislative proposals were presented in the House. These legislative proposals were the Pakistan Airports Authority Bill, 2021; the Pakistan Civil Aviation Bill, 2021 and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• The Housed passed a motion for consideration of the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (Amendment) Bill, 2021 during joint sitting of parliament.
• The House did not consider two other government bills.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not take up any question during the question hour due to absence of relevant lawmakers.
• Minister for energy responded to a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding shortage of gas in Karachi while another CAN was not taken up.
• A motion of thanks to the President for his address to both Houses and a motion under Rule 259 were not taken up.
• Moved by the Minister for foreign affairs, the House adopted a motion allowing the use of its hall for the 48th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers to be held in March.

Order and Institutionalization

• Four lawmakers including the Ministers for foreign affairs and energy spoke on points of order for 59 minutes.
• A lawmaker belonging to PML-N pointed out the quorum at 10:49 am which led to the suspension of the proceedings for 51 minutes.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

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