• Session Prorogued Sine Die

ISLAMABAD, March 22, 2017: The National Assembly on Wednesday passed two government bills, including the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Bill, 2017, before the session was prorogued sine die, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 11^th sitting of the 40^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for three hours and 21 minutes, while the proceedings remained suspended for an hour and two minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1039 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 59 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 one minute.
• Thirty-three lawmakers (10%) were present at the outset and 48 (15%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PkMAP, ANP, AMLP, QWP-S and PML-Z attended the sitting.
• Nine minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented reports of the Committee on the Constitution (Twenty-Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Bill, 2016. The House condoned the delay in the presentation of these reports.
• The House passed the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Bill, 2017 and the Public Private Partnership Authority Bill, 2017 as received from the Senate.
• The House witnessed the presentation of three periodical reports of the Standing Committee on Communications and Government Assurances.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as five out of 32 Starred Questions were taken up during the Question Hour while the lawmakers asked nine supplementary questions as well.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding delay in finalization of employees’ pension cases and recruitment in FATA Secretariat by Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without screening test.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on two Points of Order consuming 10 minutes of the proceedings.
• Opposition parties except MQM staged two walkouts against policies of the government and out of order transaction of business for three and 12 minutes, respectively.
• PPPP and PTI lawmakers pointed out quorum at 1201 hours and 1322 hours, respectively. The quorum was found incomplete on both occasions and the proceedings remained suspend for an hour and two minutes.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The 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.