ISLAMABAD, January 6, 2016: The National Assembly took up most of its agenda amidst low attendance during fourth sitting of 28^th session on Wednesday, 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 two hours and 49 minutes.
• The sitting started at its scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the proceeding for first 20 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Prime Minister was not present.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 63 minutes.
• 16 MNAs (4%) were present at outset and 68 (20%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PML, PML-Z, BNP, APML and AMLP were present.
• Seven minority members were present.
• Fifteen members applied for leave.

Output

• The Chairmen of Standing Committees on Information, Broadcasting & National Heritage; Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource; Religious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony and Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics & Privatization presented the periodic reports of the committees before the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up ten out of 31 starred questions appearing on the agenda. The Members also asked 15 supplementary questions.
• The government submitted written replies to 17 out of 26 unstarred questions appearing on the agenda.
• The Federal Minister for States & Frontier Regions responded to a Calling Attention Notice regarding delay in the approval of thousands of Schedules of New Expenditure (SNEs) in the FATA.
• Three lawmakers discussed the motion of thanks about the Presidential address for 45 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on five Points of Order consuming 31 minutes of the proceeding.
• A PPPP lawmaker pointed out the lacking quorum at 1315 hours that led to the adjournment of sitting.

Transparency

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

 To download factsheet, click here for English version – click here for Urdu version

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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