ISLAMABAD, May 2, 2019: The government introduced seven legislative proposals in the National Assembly on Thursday while the House proceedings remained suspended for 28 minutes due to ministerial absence, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during eighth sitting of the ninth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 25 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 33 minutes.
• The proceedings started at 1122 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 31 lawmakers (9%) were present at the outset and 143 (42%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of GDA, PML-N, BAP, PML and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Five out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output 

• The Minister for Law and Justice introduced the Muslim Family Laws (Amendment in Section 4) Bill, 2019; the Muslim Family Laws (Amendment in Section 7) Bill, 2019; the Letters of Administration and Succession Certificates Bill, 2019; the Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Bill, 2019; the Whistleblower Protection and Vigilance Commission Bill, 2019; the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Legal Aid and Justice Authority Bill, 2019. The House referred these bills to the concerned standing committees for review and recommendations.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding funds for provision of hearing-aid to 300 hearing impaired children in CDA hospital, Islamabad.
• A CAN regarding admissions in Islamabad’s educational institutions remained unaddressed.
• The relevant ministers responded to eight out of 30 Starred Questions during the proceedings while eight questions were not taken up due to movers’ absence, seven were transferred to next rota-day and three were not answered by the government. The remaining four questions remained unaddressed while lawmakers asked 16 supplementary questions as well.
• The House did not take up a Motion under Rule 259 and Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as seven lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 30 minutes of the proceedings.
• A lawmaker spoke on a Point of Personal Explanation for three minutes.
• The Chair suspended the proceedings for 28 minutes due to absence of the Ministers during the Question Hour. Moreover, the House took a five-minute casual break as well.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on May 3, 2019 (Friday) at 1030 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