ISLAMABAD, October 11, 2017: The National Assembly, on Wednesday, deferred the lawmakers’ queries related to the Ministry of Interior due to unpreparedness of the ministerial staff and later the session was prorogued sine die, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during eighth sitting of the 47^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 58 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1050 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for six minutes.
• As many as 45 (13%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 40 (12%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PkMAP, PML-F, JI, ANP, BNP-M, AMLP and APML attended the sitting.
• Seven minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Chairpersons of the Standing Committees on Industries & Production, Railways, Defence, Information Technology & Telecommunication and Commerce & Textile presented the periodical reports of their committees for the period between January and June, 2017.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as seven out of 57 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while 40 other questions were deferred. The lawmakers asked 17 supplementary questions. Most of the deferred questions related to the Ministry of Interior and the Chair directed the government to suspend the concerned staff of the ministry for failing to provide replies to the lawmakers’ questions on time.
• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding steep rise in the cases of breast cancer in Pakistan. A CAN addressed to the Ministry of Interior and about Capital Development Authority’s surprise inspection of markets in Islamabad was deferred.
• The House did not take up the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 13 lawmakers spoke on public importance issues under Rule 18 consuming an hour and three minutes of the proceedings.
• Two lawmakers – belonging to PPPP and PTI – pointed out quorum at 1100 hours and 1220 hours, respectively, but the quorum was found complete on both counts.
• The PTI lawmakers walked out of the proceedings after the Chair denied permission to a party’s legislator to speak on a Point of Order.
• The lawmakers belonging to PPPP and MQM staged a four-minute walkout over the state of affairs in the Pakistan Steel Mill.

Transparency

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

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