ISLAMABAD, December 20, 2018: The National Assembly did not take up its scheduled business and debated creation of South Punjab province as well as restoration of Bahawalpur province, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

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

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 50 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 40 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1638 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
• The Leader of House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 43 minutes. He was released from jail custody to attend the House proceedings on production orders issued by the Speaker,
• As many as 44 lawmakers (13%) were present at the outset and 97 (28%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, BNP-M, JWP, PML-N and PML attended the sitting.
• As many as five out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House did not take up the scheduled business appearing on Orders of the Day.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Tabled by the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed a motion to constitute Public Accounts Committee and Committee on Law and Justice.

Order and Institutionalization 

• As many as 16 lawmakers spoke on Points of Order (POs) consuming an hour and 54 minutes (67%) of the proceedings’ time. Most of these POs were related to creation of South Punjab as well as Hazara provinces and restoration of Bahawalpur province.
• A PTI lawmaker staged a token walkout after submitting his protesting note with the Chair who disallowed him to speak on a point of order.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 21, 2018 (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