ISLAMABAD, February 3, 2017: The National Assembly passed the Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill 2016 unanimously and deferred the Companies Bill, 2016 for a later sitting on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during seventh sitting of the 39^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 49 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1033 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for one and a half hours while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Twenty-seven lawmakers (8%) were present at the outset and 18 (5%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, BNP-A, AMLP and QWP-S attended the sitting.
• Four minority members were present.

Output

• The House passed the Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill, 2016 unanimously. Seven lawmakers debated the bill for an hour and five minutes.
• The Companies Bill, 2016 was deferred for a later sitting on treasury’s request.
• Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization laid the Fiscal and Debt Policy Statements 2016-2017 and First Quarterly Report 2016-2017 of the Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Pakistan’s Economy.
• Chairman of the Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and a member of the Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping presented the Periodical Reports of their respective committees before the House.
• On behalf of the Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, a PPPP lawmaker presented the Annual report of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for the year 2015-2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 15 out of 35 Starred Questions were taken up and answered during the Question Hour. The lawmakers asked 20 supplementary questions as well.
• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding non-inclusion of NA-47 in the (RRU) for rehabilitation/reconstruction works. Another CAN about illegal maternity clinics in Islamabad was not addressed.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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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.