ISLAMABAD, June 26, 2019: The National Assembly approved 92 Demands for Grants on Wednesday for fiscal year 2019-20 related to various ministries and departments while rejecting all cut motions on them, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 13^th sitting of the 11^th NA session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for eight  hours and 22 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for an hour and five minutes due to prayer and lunch break.
• The proceedings started at 1140 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for three hours and 56  minutes while the rest of the proceedings was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) attended the sitting for forty minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• A total of 108  lawmakers (32%) were present at the outset and 149 (44%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, GDA, MMAP, BAP, MQM, PML, BNP and AMLP attended the sitting.
• Eight out of 10 minority lawmakers were also present during the proceedings.

  Output 

• The House approved 66 Demands for Grants worth Rs. 347,951,070,000 having no cut motions on them. It approved another 26 Demands for Grants worth Rs. 313,984,993,000 while rejecting all cut motions on them. A  total of 29 lawmakers spoke on cut motions related to Cabinet Division for an hour and 57 minutes.
• The remaining 63 Demands for Grants would be considered in the next sitting.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House held discussion on the Charged Expenditure of more than Rs. 43.477 trillion included in Demands for Grants and Appropriations for the financial year ending on June 30, 2020 and twelve lawmakers also spoke on it for an hour and 13 minutes.
• Tabled by the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed a motion to constitute a Special Committee headed by the Speaker National Assembly to look into the issues of Balochistan and give suggestions to resolve them. The Speaker will be authorized to nominate the members in this Committee. Four lawmakers spoke on this motion for five minutes.

.Order and Institutionalization

•  A lawmaker spoke on a point of order for three minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on June 27, 2019 (Thursday) at 1100 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