ISLAMABAD, June 22, 2010: The Fifteenth sitting of the 23^rd Session lasted 3 Hours and 19 minutes, with 151 members present at the outset and 156 members at the end, reports the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on the National Assembly Proceedings.

The following are some key observations of the Parliamentary Business:

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for 03 hours and 19 minutes.
• The fifteenth sitting started at 1800 Hours against the scheduled starting time of 1700 hours. The House proceedings started late by 60 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting. The Deputy Speaker was also present during the course of the sitting
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting for 147 minutes, while the Leader of Opposition was present for 98 minutes.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML and PMLF were present, while those of PMLN, MQM, MMAP, ANP, BNPA and NPP remained absent.
• The Chief Whips of PPPP, PMLN, MQM, ANP, MMAP and PML were present, while the chief whips of PMLF, NPP and BNPA were absent
• Eight Members appealed for leave to be absent from the parliamentary sitting.
• A total of 151 (45%) members were present at the start of the sitting, while 156 (46%) members were present at the end of the sitting.
• The House took a break of 38 minutes on the account prayers during the sitting.
• As many as eight minority members were present during the fifteenth sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 4 members spoke on the budgetary proposals for 22 minutes.
• One member of MMAP took 5 minutes to express his views on the budget.
•  The Minister for Finance and Revenue attended the entire sitting.

Order and institutionalization

• Eight Points of Order were raised, taking up 65 minutes of the House proceedings.
• There was no Adjournment Motion on the Orders of the Day.
• There was one instance of a token walkout by members of PMLN, expressing their reservations over the budget presented in the third sitting. The walkout lasted 8 minutes.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was 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 Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN