ISLAMABAD, January 12, 2018: The National Assembly, on Friday, passed a bill seeking to extend the jurisdiction of Supreme Court and Peshawar High Court (PHC) to Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and held discussion on the Kasur incident, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the 51^st session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hour and 40 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1042 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and eight minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 19 minutes.
• As many as 63 (18%) lawmakers were present at the outset and seven (2%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, JI, PPPP, PkMAP and APML attended the sitting.
• Six minority members were present.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law and Justice, the House passed the Supreme Court and High Court (Extension of Jurisdiction of Federally Administered Tribal Area) Bill, 2017. The bill was moved as supplementary agenda.  As many as nine lawmakers discussed the bill consuming 21 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House did not take up the COMSATS University Islamabad Bill, 2017 and the Federal Employees Benevolent Fund and Group Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House adopted a motion suspending its regular agenda to take up the supplementary business.
• Moved by Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, the House discussed a Motion under Rule 259 regarding the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kasur. Eight lawmakers participated in the discussion consuming an hour and 21 minutes of the proceedings. The Minister of State for Interior made a 15-minute long statement on the issue. The discussion will continue in the next sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• A lawmaker spoke on a Point of Order for two minutes.
• A JUI-F lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1215 hours but it was found complete upon counting.
• A JUI-F lawmaker staged a two-minute token walkout against consideration of the Supreme Court and High Court (Extension of Jurisdiction of Federally Administered Tribal Area) Bill, 2017 as supplementary agenda.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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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.