ISLAMABAD, June 15, 2020: The National Assembly started general discussion on the Federal Budget 2020-21, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during sixth sitting of the 22^nd NA session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for three hours and 21 minutes.
• The proceedings started at 1611 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 54 minutes while rest of the proceedings was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
• A total of 30 lawmakers (9%) were present at the outset and 35 (10%) at the adjournment of the sitting.As per SOPs, 46 lawmakers of the government and 40 members of the opposition parties would attend each sitting during the ongoing budget session while the overall attendance to be marked at the main gate of the National Assembly.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PPPP and BAP attended the sitting.
• Four out of 10 minority lawmakers were also present during the proceedings.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The Parliamentary Leader of PML-N formally opened debate on the federal budget 2020-21 and spoke for an hour and six minutes. The Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives responded to the speech of PML-N Leader and spoke for 39 minutes.
• Four other lawmakers – one each of PPPP, MQMP, MMAP and PTI – also participated in the budget debate and spoke for an hour and 22 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on June 16, 2020 (Tuesday) at 1600 hours.

Transparency

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

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