Opposition’s Protest Leads to Early Adjournment of NA Sitting

ISLAMABAD, February 21, 2019: The second sitting of the National Assembly was adjourned early on Thursday without addressing most of its regular business due to protest by the opposition parties, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the second sitting of the eighth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for an hour and 20 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1030 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker  was also present.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader were not present.
• As many as 59 lawmakers (35%) were present at the outset and 163 (48%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of GDA, PML, MMA, BAP and PML-N attended the sitting.
• As many as four out of 10 minority lawmakers were present.

Output  

• The House adopted four motions to form as many Committees on Finance, China Pakistan Economic Corridor, National Security and Kashmir and the Speaker was authorized to nominate members for these committees.
• Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs presented report on the State of the Economy for the year 2018-19 and the Fiscal and Debt Policy Statements for the year 2018-19.
• The House did not take up any other agenda item on Orders of the Day.

Order and Institutionalization

• Three lawmakers spoke for 40 minutes on Points of Order related to the recent arrest of Sindh Assembly Speaker by NAB authorities in Islamabad.
• The opposition lawmakers protested for 14 minutes during the speech of Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, demanding the Chair to allow them to speak first on the arrest of the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly. When another minister took the floor, the opposition lawmakers went to the dais of the Speaker and again started protest, which led to the early adjournment of the sitting till February 22, 2019 (Friday) at 1100 hrs.

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.

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