ISLAMABAD, June 10, 2020: The National Assembly took up its entire agenda by adopting standard operating procedures (SOPs) with regards to prevention of the Covid-19 pandemic. The members consumed their time in discussing the issues related to politics, parliamentary business, agriculture, health and economy, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the 22^nd session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for three hours and 14 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1118 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 23 minutes while remaining proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• As many as 20 lawmakers (6%) were present at the outset and 24 (7%) at the adjournment of sitting. As per SOPs, 46 lawmakers of the government and 40 members of the opposition parties would attend each sitting during the ongoing budget session while the overall attendance to be marked at the main gate of the National Assembly.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, BAP, PPP and MMAP attended the sitting.
• Two minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Adviser to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs introduced four government bills in the House which were referred to the relevant committees for further consideration. These bills were the Maritime Security Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the National College of Arts Institute Bill, 2020; the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
• He also laid in the House the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 and the annual report of Council of Common Interests (CCI) for the year 2016-2017.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Privatization presented report about the Privatization Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

Order and Institutionalization

• PPPP lawmakers protested on floor of the House for 45 minutes against the privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills.
• Seventeen lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for two hours and 45 minutes and discussed the issues related to politics, parliamentary business, agriculture, economy, health, Pakistan Steel Mills and the plane crash in Karachi.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on June 11, 2020 (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 proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted