NA Continues Debate on Federal Budget amid Low Attendance

ISLAMABAD, June 23, 2019: The National Assembly continued debate on federal budget 2019-20 amid low attendance of lawmakers in the House on Sunday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during tenth sitting of the 11th NA session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for six hours and 43 minutes.
  • The proceedings started at 1417 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
  • The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for five hours and 18 minutes while rest of the proceedings was chaired by two members of Panel of Chairpersons.
  • The Leaders of the House (Prime Minister) and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • A total of 31 lawmakers (9%) were present at the outset and 28 (8%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of JWP and BAP attended the sitting.
  • Five out of 10 minority lawmakers were also present during the proceedings.

  Representation and Responsiveness

  • Twenty-nine lawmakers took part in the general discussion on the federal budget for the year 2019-20. The discussion consumed six hours and 13 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Three lawmakers spoke on points of order for 12 minutes.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on June 24, 2019 (Monday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

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

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