NA Passes Government Bill

ISLAMABAD, August 4, 2016: The National Assembly passed a government bill on Thursday during fourth sitting of 34th 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 an hour and 39 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1705 hours against the scheduled time 1700 hours.
  • The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Speaker was not present.
  • The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • 28 MNAs (8%) were present at outset and 70 (20%) at adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, JUI-F, PML-Z, ANP, AMLP, PML-F and QWP-S attended the sitting.
  • Seven minority members were present.

Output

  • The House passed the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) (Amendment) Bill, 2016 as passed by the Senate with amendments.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up 11 out of 30 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda. The lawmakers also asked 19 supplementary questions.
  • The House took up a Calling Attention Notices regarding exclusion of various development schemes of the FATA by the Government under Rationalization Policy while another about increase in the prices of 70,000 medicines in the country could not be addressed due to absence of the movers.
  • The House did not take up the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The lawmakers spoke on six Points of Order consuming 13 minutes of the sitting.

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.