ISLAMABAD, September 29, 2021: The National Assembly addressed its entire agenda on Wednesday and passed seven motions for consideration of as many bills in the joint sitting of the Parliament, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 8th sitting of the 36th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for two hours and 55 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 24 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 04:56 pm against the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy speaker was also present.
• The leaders of the house (Prime Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 104 (30 percent) lawmakers were present at the outset and 94 (27 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, MMAP, GDA, BAP and PML attended the sitting.
• Seven minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House witnessed introduction of 11 government bills which included the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Evacuee Trust Properties (Management and Disposal) Bill, 2021; the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Bill, 2021; the Export-Import Bank of Pakistan Bill, 2021; the Pakistan Tobacco Board (Amendment) Bill, 2021; Iqbal Academy Pakistan Bill, 2021; the North-West Frontier Constabulary (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Pakistan Coast Guards (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Pakistan Rangers (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Frontier Corps (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill, 2021. All these bills were referred to the relevant committees for further consideration.
• Five Ordinances were also laid in the House which were the Federal Government Properties Management Authority Ordinance, 2021; the Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021; the Public Properties (Removal of encroachment) Ordinance, 2021; the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 and the Pakistan Food Security Flow and Information Ordinance, 2021.
• The House also witnessed presentation of three reports of Standing Committees on as many legislative proposals.
• The House passed two government bills including the Higher Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Higher Education Commission (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Three statutory reports and an authenticated copy of the Address of the President to both Houses assembled together on 13th September, 2021 were laid in the House.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 12 out 25 starred questions. In addition, lawmakers asked 21 supplementary questions.
• The House passed seven motions for consideration of as many bills in the joint sitting of the Parliament. The bills to be considered in the joint sitting would be the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021; the International Court of Justice (Review and Re-consideration) Bill, 2021; the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Bill, 2021; the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Hyderabad Institute for Technical and Management Sciences Bill, 2021.
• The House took up two calling attention notices regarding non-availability of field store of PESCO in District Bunair and large number of civil servant cases pending in Federal Services Tribunal.
• Advisor to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs moved a motion of thanks to the President for his address to Parliament on September 13, 2021.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers including Minister for Law and Human Rights spoke on points of order for 35 minutes.
• An Independent lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 07:09 pm but it was found complete upon counting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Friday, October 1, 2021 at 11:00 am.

Transparency

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

 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