ISLAMABAD, May 17, 2016: The National Assembly took up its entire agenda except motions under Rule 259 and a Calling Attention Notice on Tuesday during seventh sitting of its 32^nd session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 11 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1037 hours against the scheduled time 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 45 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceeding.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Seven Federal Ministers attended the sitting.
• 38 MNAs (11%) were present at outset and 45 (13%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-F, PkMAP, APML and BNP-A attended the sitting.
• Six minority members were present.

Output

• The House did not grant leave to introduce the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment of Article 140A).
• The MQM lawmakers introduced the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2016  while PPPP lawmaker introduced the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2016. These bills were referred to the relevant standing committees for further deliberations.
• The House deferred the introduction of the Pakistan Minorities Rights Commission Bill, 2016 and the Protection of Minorities Bill, 2016 on request of the relevant lawmakers while the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment of Article 142) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment of Articles 5 & 6) were dropped due to absence of members in-charge.
• The House also deferred the consideration of the Law Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014.
• The House rejected two separate motions of MQM and PML-N lawmakers to amend the National Assembly’s Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.
• Moved by PPPP lawmaker, the House referred another amendment to the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges for further deliberations.
• The House adopted three resolutions urging the government to complete Bara Kahu Housing Scheme for Federal Government employees, improve maternal health facilities in Federal hospitals and control price hike in the country. Three lawmakers spoke for seven minutes on resolution regarding maternal health care facilities.
• Two other resolutions were dropped due to absence of relevant lawmakers.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) to hold first meeting of OIC’s Standing Committee on Science and Technology in Kazakhstan instead of Pakistan.
• The House rejected a motion of MQM lawmaker under Rule 244B seeking to constitute a Special Committee to probe into writing off the loans of billions of rupees during last three financial years.
• The House did not take up five motions under Rule 259 and a CAN.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 11 Points of Order consuming 18 minutes of the proceeding.
• An independent lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1046 that led to the suspension of proceeding for 35 minutes.
• The lawmakers belonging to MQM staged a token walkout for four minutes against the ongoing Operation in Karachi.

Transparency

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

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