ISLAMABAD, January 1, 2020: The National Assembly took up most of its regular agenda on Wednesday and referred a government bill to the relevant standing committee for deliberations, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the 18^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 57 minutes, however, the proceedings remained suspended for 31 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1645 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Sixty-three lawmakers (19%) were present at the outset and 99 (29%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, MQM, JWP, BAP and PPPP attended the sitting.
• Five minority members were present.

Output

• The Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, National History and Literary Heritage introduced the Pakistan Academy of Letters (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which was referred to the relevant standing committee for further consideration.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up four out of 33 starred questions while lawmakers asked ten supplementary questions as well.
• The Ministers for States and Frontier Regions and Energy responded to two Calling Attention Notices regarding non-implementation on FATA reforms and load shedding of the natural gas across the country.
• A motion of thanks to express gratitude to the President for his address to both Houses assembled together on September 12, 2019 was not taken up.

Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers spoke on points of order for 11 minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 2, 2020 (Thursday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

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