PM, Opposition Leader and Finance Minister absent

ISLAMABAD, June 12, 2015: Twenty lawmakers participated in the debate on Federal Budget 2015-16 during 6^th sitting of the 23rd session of Lower House on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The National Assembly continued witnessing thin attendance of legislators as the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader and the Finance Minister did not attend the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings:

• The National Assembly met for six hours and 36 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1006 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours, witnessing a delay of six minutes.
• The House had a prayer and lunch break of 85 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the sitting for 158 minutes while the remaining proceedings were presided over by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Finance Minister also did not attend the proceedings.
• A total of 18 members (5% of the total membership – 342) were present at the outset, while 20 (6%) were there at the time of adjournment.
• A maximum of 162 members (47%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of BNP, QWP, APML, PML-Z, JUI-F and AMLP attended the sitting.
• Nine minority members were present during the sitting.
• Eleven members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Twenty lawmakers expressed their views on the Federal Budget 2015-16 for 295 minutes (74% of the sitting time). They included PML-N (7), PTI & MQM (3 each), PPPP (2), and one each of JI, QWP, JUI-F, BNP and an Independent lawmaker.

Order and Institutionalization

• One point of order consumed one minute of the sitting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to observers and the public.

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The daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.