ISLAMABAD, January 8, 2016: The trend of low attendance persisted in the National Assembly during sixth sitting of 28^th session on Friday, 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 31 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1040 hours against its scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Prime Minister was not present.
• The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Eleven Federal Ministers attended the sitting.
• 38 MNAs (11%) were present at outset and adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PML-Z, BNP, JI, APML and AMLP were present.
• Nine minority members were present.
• Nineteen members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up seven out of 41 starred questions appearing on the agenda. The Members also asked 15 supplementary questions.
• Only eight of 16 unstarred questions were replied.
• The Minister of State for Interior & Narcotics Control responded to a Calling Attention Notice regarding illegal migration of Pakistanis to Thailand and Sri Lanka resulting in their detention there.
• Five lawmakers spoke on the motion of thanks about the Presidential address consuming 58 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmakers spoke on six Points of Order consuming 10 minutes of the proceeding.

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 the 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.