ISLAMABAD, March 16, 2015: The National Assembly passed one bill and witnessed introduction of five more bills amid low attendance of lawmakers during first sitting of its 20^th session on Monday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The House passed the Seed (Amendment) Bill, 2014 while the introduced bills include the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Cost and Management Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Hindu Marriage Bill, 2015; the Banks (Nationalization) (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Capital University of Science and Technology Bill, 2015.

Parliamentary Secretary for Finance presented the first quarterly report of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan for the year 2014-2015 and the annual report together with the auditors’ report and certified statement of accounts of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

The House did not take up two calling attention notices (CANs) regarding shortage of water likely to cause drought in the country and non-convening of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting during the last nine months.

Seventy lawmakers (20%) were present at the start of the sitting and 88 (26%) at the time of adjournment. The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting while 19 Points of order (POs) consumed 46% of the sitting time.

The House observed a silence for one minute to mourn the death of those who lost their lives in the church bombings in Lahore.

 The following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for three hours and 16 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1700 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The House had a prayer break for 20 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting, while the Deputy Speaker was present for 20 minutes.
• The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
• Seventy members (20%) were present at the start and 88 (26%) at the end of the sitting. A maximum of 125 members (36%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, AMLP, MQM, PML-Z, QWP and ANP attended the sitting.
• Seven minority members were present.
• Ten lawmakers applied for leave.

Output

• The House passed the Seed (Amendment) Bill, 2014.
• Five bills were introduced comprising the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Cost and Management Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Hindu Marriage Bill, 2015; the Banks (Nationalization) (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Capital University of Science and Technology Bill, 2015.
• Parliamentary Secretary for Finance presented the first quarterly report of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan for the year 2014-2015 and the annual report together with the auditors’ report and certified statement of accounts of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Twelve out of 33 starred questions appearing on Orders of the Day were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministries/departments. In addition, the legislators raised 13 supplementary questions during the sitting.
• Two CANs regarding shortage of water likely to cause drought in the country and non-convening of the CCI’s meeting during the last nine months were not taken up.
• Similarly, two motions under Rule 259 to debate the recent petrol crisis and problems being faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs) were also not taken up.

Order and Institutionalization

• Nineteen POs consumed 90 minutes (46%) of the sitting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.

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This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of FAFEN and in no way reflect the views of the European Union. This session report is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.