ISLAMABAD, June 14, 2012:  The National Assembly passed the Finance Bill 2012-13 during the last sitting of the 42^nd session on Thursday as the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the parliamentary heads of PML, MQM, MMAP, ANP and PMLF remained absent.

This is the first time during the tenure of the 13^th National Assembly that the Opposition Benches did not move any cut motions on the budget.

PMLN legislators continued protest against the Prime Minister’s conviction in the contempt case and the budget during the sitting. Two PMLN Members pointed out Quorum on two occasions but on count more than 86 Members were present in the House.

The National Assembly adopted a Resolution saying the Speaker’s ruling on the Prime Minister’s disqualification cannot be challenged on any forum.

A total of 83 (24%) legislators were present at the start and 176 (52%) at the end of the sitting.

The following are some key observations of the parliamentary business.

Members’ participation in House proceedings

• The National Assembly met for four hours and 15 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1128 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1100 hours. The House proceedings started late by 28 minutes.
• The Deputy Speaker presided the sitting.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders NPP, BNPA and PPPS attended the sitting.
• The Chief Whips of the PPPP, PMLN, PML, MQM, ANP, MMAP and PMLF were present.
• A total of 83 (24%) legislators were present at the start and 176 (52%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 192 Members were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• The Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue attended the sitting for 135 minutes.
• Ten Minority Members were present.
• Five Members applied for leave to be absent.

Representation and Responsiveness

• No Cut Motions were raised by the Opposition Benches.

Output

• The House passed Finance Bill 2012-13 with a majority vote.
• The National Assembly adopted a Resolution saying the Speaker’s ruling on the Prime Minister’s disqualification cannot be challenged on any forum.

Order and institutionalization

• One Point of Order took up two minutes of sitting time.
• PMLN legislators continued protest against the Prime Minister’s conviction in the contempt case and the budget during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• Copies of the budget speech were available to the legislators.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN