ISLAMABAD, August 22, 2017: The National Assembly unanimously passed the Elections Bill, 2017 on Tuesday during last sitting of the session, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings of the tenth sitting of 44^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for six hours.
• The sitting started at 1044 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 25 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for three hours and 37 minutes.
• As many as 48 (14%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 26 (8%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, JI, PkMAP, BNP, QWP-S, ANP and APML attended the sitting.
• Five minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

• The House passed the Elections Bill, 2017 with amendments. The approved amendments were moved by the government while the opposition lawmakers’ amendments were rejected.
• The House adopted a resolution paying tribute to the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms for its efforts regarding electoral reforms. A minister spoke on the resolution for five minutes.
• The government introduced the House Building Finance Corporation (Repeal) Bill, 2017. The bill was referred to the relevant committee.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House did not take up the Calling Attention Notices and other motions appearing on Orders of the Day.

Order and Institutionalization

• Eight lawmakers spoke on the Points of Order consuming 21 minutes of the proceedings.
• The PTI lawmaker staged a walkout from proceedings to register their protest over ignoring their proposals on electoral reforms in the Election Bill, 2017. They left the House 12 minutes before the conclusion of the sitting and did not return.

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