National Assembly: 28 Lawmakers Participate in Budget Debate

ISLAMABAD, May 10, 2018: The National Assembly continued general discussion on the Annual Budget 2018-19 on Thursday and 28 lawmakers participated in debate on it,  observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the eighth sitting of the 56^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for seven hours and 10 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1035 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and four minutes, Deputy Speaker for two hours while the rest of the proceedings were chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for two hours and three minutes.
• As many as 16 lawmakers (5%) were present at the outset and 5 (1%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, APML, ANP, QWP and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Five Six minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Minister for Law and Justice introduced the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2018 which was referred to the relevant committee for further consideration.

Representation and Responsiveness  

• Twenty-eight lawmakers took part in the debate on annual budget 2018-19. The discussion continued for five hours and 40 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Ten lawmakers spoke on as many points of order consuming 66 minutes of the proceedings.

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 proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted.

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