ISLAMABAD, January 22, 2019: The National Assembly continued the debate on the killing of unarmed civilians by Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in Sahiwal, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet on Tuesday. 

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of the ongoing (seventh) session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for three hours and 29 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 23 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1640 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• A member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 16 minutes.
• As many as 52 lawmakers (15%) were present at the outset and 80 (23%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML, BAP, PML-N and PPPP attended the sitting.
• As many as six out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House did not take up any agenda item appearing on ‘Orders of the Day’.

• Moved by the Minster of State for Parliamentary Affairs, the House adopted three motions to suspend the agenda set for private members’ day (today) and for next two sittings.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 23 lawmakers participated in discussion on Sahiwal incident following a motion under Rule 259 and spoke for two hours and 45 minutes.
• The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs informed the House about his talk with the journalists who had walked out from the press gallery to protest over the sacking of media workers and delay in payment of salaries. He spoke for two minutes.

 Order and Institutionalization 

• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 23, 2019 (Wednesday) at 1630 hours.

 Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of 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 are excepted