ISLAMABAD, June 22, 2012:  The 13^th National Assembly elected the 25^th Prime Minister of Pakistan on Friday during the 43^rd session. Earlier, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani was disqualified by the Supreme Court on June 19, 2012.

Raja Pervaz Ashraf, the PPPP candidate and federal minister for Information Technology and former minister for Water and Power was elected as the premier of Pakistan. He secured 211 votes. On the other hand, the PMLN candidate, Mehtab Abbassi, secured 89 votes.

The newly elected Prime Minister after winning the elections addressed the House for 20 minutes while Mehtab Abbassi spoke for 27 minutes.

Ten Members, present in the House – MMAP and two FATA legislators, abstained from voting.

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 29 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1827 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1730 hours. The House proceedings started late by 57 minutes.
• The Speaker presided the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting.
• All parliamentary leaders, except ANP, attended the proceedings.
• The party chief whips of all the parliamentary parties attended the sitting.
• A total of 293 (87%) legislators were present at the start and 130 (38%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 310 Members were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• Ten Minority Members were present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The elections for Prime Minister under rule 32 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business was held during the sitting.
• Raja Pervez Ashraf, the PPPP candidate and federal minister secured 211 votes, while the PMLN candidate Mehtab Abbassi secured 89 votes.
• Ten Members abstained from voting while they were present in the House.
• Six Points of Order consumed 10 minutes of the sitting time.

Transparency

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

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