ISLAMABAD, April 19, 2021: The National Assembly (NA) passed two government bills and discussed current law and order situation in the country, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during second sitting of 32^nd session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 21 minutes.
• The sitting started at 02:16 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The leaders of the House (Prime Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 55 (16%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 104 (30%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• A newly elected PML-N lawmaker took the oath.
• The parliamentary leader of GDA and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Seven out of ten minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for human rights, the House passed two government bills including the Islamabad Capital Territory Senior Citizens Bill, 2020 and the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2020.
• The House witnessed introduction of five government bills which were referred to the relevant standing committees for further consideration. These bills were the Juvenile Justice System (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Holy Quran (Elimination of Printing and Recording Errors) (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the State-Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) Bill, 2021 and the Jammu and Kashmir (Administration of Property) (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• On behalf of Chairman Standing Committee on finance, revenue and economic affairs, a member of the committee presented the report on the Corporate Restructuring Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• A motion of thanks to the President was not considered in the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding non-availability of open, fair and transparent system of mutation (land/property) in Islamabad and increasing trend of drug addiction amongst youth in Lahore. These CANs were responded to by the Parliamentary Secretaries on interior and narcotics control respectively.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers including Ministers for interior, and religious affairs and interfaith harmony spoke on points of order for 29 minutes which were mainly related to current law and order situation.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on April 22, 2021 (Thursday) at 02:00 pm.

 Transparency

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

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