ISLAMABAD, January 13, 2016: The National Assembly considered all items on agenda except a bill during ninth 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 three hours.
• The sitting started at 1035 hours against its scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 85 minutes while a member of the Panel of Chairpersons presided over the rest of the sitting.
• The Prime Minister was not present.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 100 minutes.
• Eight Federal Ministers attended the sitting.
• 29 MNAs (8%) were present at outset and 39 (11%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PML-F, QWP-S, JI, PML-Z, APML and AMLP were present.
• Seven minority members were present.

Output

• The House deferred the introduction of the National University of Sciences and Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2016 on request of the minister in-charge.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 14 out of 40 starred questions appearing on agenda. The members asked 15 supplementary questions as well.
• The government did not reply to the 20 out of 31 unstarred questions appearing on agenda.
• The Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource and Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination made statements on Calling Attention Notices (CANs) non-payment of dues to the affectees of Kuwait-Iraq war 1992 and disconnection of power supply to Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Hyderabad respectively.
• Four lawmakers spoke on a motion of thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament. Their speeches consumed 53 minutes of the sitting.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on five Points of Order consuming 27 minutes of the proceeding. They discussed the issues relating to performance of the government, personal explanation and business of the House.

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