ISLAMABAD, June 16, 2015: The National Assembly continued to debate the 2015-16 budget on Tuesday as the House witnessed low attendance of lawmakers, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Twenty lawmakers (6%) were present at the start of the sitting and 36 (11%) at the time of adjournment. The Prime Minister attended 7% of the proceedings, while the Opposition Leader was present for 38% of the sitting’s duration.

Twenty-one lawmakers spoke during the budget debate that took up nearly 70% of the sitting time. These included nine members from PML-N, followed by PPPP and PTI (four each), MQM (three) and JUI-F (one).

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings

• The National Assembly met for five hours and 50 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1005 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The House held a break for lunch and prayers for 69 minutes.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 180 minutes.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the sitting for four minutes.
• The remaining time was presided over by a member of the Panel of Chairpersons.
• 20 members (6%) were present at the start and 36 (11%) at the time of adjournment.
• A maximum of 166 members (49%) were present during the sitting.
• The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister were present for 25 minutes.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for 134 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of MQM, PkMAP, JI, ANP and APML were present.
• All the members on minority seats attended the proceedings.
• Five members applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Twenty-one lawmakers participated in the budget debate for 243 minutes. These included nine members from PML-N, followed by PPPP and PTI (four each), MQM (three) and JUI-F (one).

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised seven points of order that consumed 20 minutes of the sitting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was not available to observers and the public.

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The daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.