ISLAMABAD, January 21, 2016: The National Assembly passed six government bills with majority vote on Thursday during fifteenth and last sitting of 28^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for five hours and 38 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1038 hours against its scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting except for 110 minutes when the Deputy Speaker presided over the proceeding of the House.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 50 minutes.
• Twelve Federal Ministers attended the sitting.
• 36 MNAs (10%) were present at outset and 98 (28%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, PML-Z, QWP-S, APML and AMLP were present.
• Five minority members were present.

Output

• The House passed six government bills with majority vote. These bills included the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the Banks (Nationalization) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the Equity Participation Fund (Repeal) Bill, 2014, the Offences in Respect of Banks (Special Courts) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2015.
• Ten lawmakers debated the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016 for two hours and 23 minutes.
• Introduced as supplementary agenda, the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2015 was debated by 12 MNAs for 16 minutes.
• The Minister for Climate Change & Human Rights presented the report of the committee on Pakistan International Airlines.
• The Chairman Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat presented the report of the Committee on the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2015.
• The Chairmen of the Standing Committees on Communications and Water & Power presented the periodical reports of their committees.
• The House unanimously passed a resolution condemning the attack at Bacha Khan University Charsadda.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding not mentioning the addresses on the Machine Readable Passport and forced load-shedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
• The House took up 11 out of 37 starred questions appearing on the agenda. The members asked 16 supplementary questions as well.
• The government provided written replies to only two out of 12 unstarred questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for 12 minutes. They discussed the issues of governance and business of the House.
• Entire opposition staged a walkout against the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016 at 1441 hours. The lawmakers of PTI and MQM returned to the House at 1500 hours, of PPPP at 1510 hours and of JI at 1512 hours.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1451 hours but it was found complete on counting.
• The opposition parties except MQM again walked out at 1611 hours as protest against the passage of the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2015.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers is available on website of National Assembly.

 To download the factsheet, click here for English version – click here for Urdu version

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted.