ISLAMABAD, February 25, 2019: The National Assembly did not start debate on the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 on Monday and discussed political and foreign issues on Points of Order, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of the eighth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for an hour and 30 minutes.
• The proceedings started at 1641 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader were not present.
• Thirty-four lawmakers (34%) were present at the outset and 103 (30%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of GDA, PML, MMA and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Four out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output  

• On behalf of Chairman Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, a member of the Committee presented the report on the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
• Parliamentary Secretary for Finance presented reports of Biannual Monitoring on the Implementation of 7th NFC Award and the Special Audit reports of the Auditor General for the audit year 2017-18 .
• The House did not consider the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019.

• Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs presented the recommendations made by the Senate on the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Other agenda items including Motion under Rule 259 and Motion of Thanks were not taken up.
• Tabled by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed a motion to defer Private Members’ Agenda till Thursday.

Order and Institutionalization

• Eight lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for an hour and 10 minutes  which were mostly related to political and foreign affairs.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on February 26, 2019 (Tuesday) 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.