ISLAMABAD, January 2, 2020: The Chair in National Assembly on Thursday issued warning to the government ministers, parliamentary secretaries and relevant government officials for ignoring the House business and staying absent from the proceedings, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of 18^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for three hours and 11 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for an hour due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1147 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House (Prime Minister) and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 42 (12%) were present at the outset and 71 (21%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PML attended the sitting.
• Five out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The Chair took serious notice of the absence of the government ministers, parliamentary secretaries and relevant government officials from the House during the time of consideration of agenda related to their ministries and warned them to attend the proceedings in future.
• Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs moved the Federal Public Service Commission (Validation of Rules) Bill, 2019 but it was not considered for passage due to less attendance of lawmakers in the House.
• Three other bills including the e Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Bill, 2019, the Banks (Nationalization) (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the University of Islamabad Bill, 2019 were not considered.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges presented report of the Committee on the amendment in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007. The amendment moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs was referred to the Committee on September 24, 2018.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not observer the question hour as the lawmakers from both sides of aisle protested against deferment of the questions related to Energy (Power and Petroleum Divisions) and absence of relevant ministers.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding closure of old Lake view park for the visitors and locust attacks in the various districts of Sindh.
• A motion of thanks expressing gratitude to the President for his address to both Houses assembled together on September 12, 2019 was not taken up.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Eighteen lawmakers including the Ministers for Defense and Communications spoke on points of order for an hour and 21 minutes.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1157 hours which led to the suspension of the proceedings for an hour after counting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 3, 2020 (Friday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

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

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted