ISLAMABAD, November 20, 2017: The National Assembly on Monday passed three government bills amid low attendance of lawmakers, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the 49^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for three hours and 41 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 22 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1615 hours against the scheduled time of 1600  hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and six minutes while Deputy Speaker  presided the rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 61 minutes.
• As many as 40 (12%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 80 (23%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, APML and ANP attended the sitting.
• Five minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House passed two government bills appearing on regular agenda which included the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the National University of Technology Bill, 2017.
• A bill – the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017 – appearing on the supplementary agenda was also passed by House after rejecting a clause of the bill.
• Parliamentary Secretary for Finance presented report on the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
• On behalf of the Chairman Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), a member of the Committee presented report on the Rulers of Acceding Sates (Abolition of Privy Purses and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
• On behalf of the Chairman Sanding Committee on Science and Technology, a member of the Committee presented report on the National University of Technology Bill, 2017.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding 36% (5.9 MAF) shortage of water as announced by the Technical Committee of Indus River System Authority (IRSA) and non-release of funds of Energy Losses Reduction (ELR) and Distribution of Power (DOP) to the PESCO.
• The House did not take up the Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address to the Parliament.

Order and Institutionalization

• Seven lawmakers spoke as many Points of Order consuming 18 minutes of the proceedings.
• A female lawmaker of PTI pointed out the quorum at 1627 hours which led to the suspension of the proceedings for 30 minutes. .

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