• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, March 6, 2019: The National Assembly passed the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 on Wednesday amid walkout by the opposition parties, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during eighth (last) sitting of the eighth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 35 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 18 minutes due to prayer break.
• The proceedings started at 1638 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 86 lawmakers (25%) were present at the outset and 143 (42%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MMAP, JWP, PPPP and BAP attended the sitting.
• As many as seven out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output  

• Moved by the Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, the House passed the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 through voice voting. The amendments moved by Minister for Finance were approved while a PTI lawmaker withdrew his amendment. Other amendments of Opposition lawmakers (PML-N, PPPP and MMAP) were rejected. However, the Chair did not give opportunity to a MMAP lawmaker to move his two amendments and it consumed 22 minutes to pass the bill after clause by clause reading.
• Four lawmakers spoke on the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 for an hour and 29 minutes while Minster for Finance concluded debate on it during his 24 minutes speech.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not take up the Motion under Rule 259 and Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament.
• Tabled by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, the House passed two motions to form Special Committee on Agriculture and Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir.

Order and Institutionalization

• The Opposition lawmakers protested on floor of the House for eight minutes against passage of the Finance Bill in haste and refusal of the Chair to Parliamentary Leader of MMAP for tabling a resolution. Later, they walked out of the proceeding at 1845 hours and did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
• The Session was prorogued sine die.

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.