Budget Debate Consumes 90% of NA Sitting 

ISLAMABAD, May 3, 2018: The major portion of the National Assembly’s proceedings was consumed in the debate on the federal budget 2018-19 on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 3rd sitting of National Assembly’s 56th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The National Assembly met for four hours and 43 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1034 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 37 minutes while the rest of the proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
  • The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) attended the sitting for an hour and 22 minutes.
  • The Leader of the Opposition remained present for an hour and 39 minutes.
  • As many as 51 lawmakers (15%) were present at the outset and 16 (5%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of ANP, JI, APML, PkMAP, QWP, PPPP, JUI-F, PML-F and AJIP attended the sitting.
  • Six minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

  • Tabled by PML-N lawmaker, the House unanimously passed a resolution proposing that the physics department of Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad should be named after Muslim scientist Abu al Fatah Abdul Rehman Al-Khazini.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Eleven lawmakers took part in the general discussion on the federal budget for the year 2018-2019. The discussion consumed four hours and 14 minutes (90%) of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

  • Two PPPP lawmakers spoke on as many points of order for three minutes.
  • Minister for Housing and State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division spoke on points of personal explanation for four and five minutes respectively.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • Information on Members’ attendance is available on the National Assembly website.

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