ISLAMABAD, August 6, 2020: The Parliament while passing a bill to meet the requirement of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) condemned India’s illegal and unilateral actions in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the single-sitting sixth joint session of Parliament:

Members’ Participation

• The Majlis-e-Shoora met for three hours and 40 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 19 minutes due to prayer breaks.
• The sitting started at 1842 hours against its scheduled time of 1700 hours.
• The Speaker of the National Assembly presided over the sitting for an hour and seven minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by the Chairman Senate.
• The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Deputy Chairman were present.
•  The Leader of the House in National Assembly (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
•  The Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly was present for three hours and two minutes.
• The Leader of the House in the Senate attended the entire sitting while the Leader of the Opposition in Senate was present for three hours and nine minutes.
• As many as 310 Parliamentarians (70% of the total membership of Parliament-446) were present at outset and 115 (26%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI, JUI-F, PkMAP, PML-N, PPPP and BAP in the Senate were present.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MMAP, AMLP, GDA, PML, BAP, PML-N, JWP and MQM in National Assembly were also present.

Output

• The Joint Session of the Parliament passed the Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Bill, 2020, along with all the amendments moved by the Minister of Law and Justice. The PPPP and PML-N lawmakers withdrew their amendments as most of these were adjusted in the bill. The bill was aimed at exchanging the information and criminals with other countries to meet the requirement of FATF.
• Tabled by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the House unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the Indian act of changing the special status of Occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019 and reiterating to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the international law.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Four lawmakers including the Leader of the Opposition, Minister for Foreign Affairs, PPPP Chairperson and Minister for Communications spoke on Kashmir issue and FATF related bills for two hours and ten minutes.

Order and Institutionalization 

• Lawmakers belonging to JI, JUI-F, MMAP and NP protested on floor of the House for 23 minutes during the consideration of legislative business.
• The government and opposition lawmakers chanted slogans against each other during the speech of Minister for Communications that continued for 31 minutes. The Chairman Senate announced to prorogue the session sine die amid ruckus in the House.

 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 Parliament proceedings, conducted by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted