ISLAMABAD, August 17, 2016: The National Assembly adopted a motion on Wednesday setting up a Parliamentary Committee to consider amendments in National Accountability Act, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during last (13^th) sitting of National Assembly’s 34^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The National Assembly met for an hour and 45 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1033 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Twenty-one lawmakers (6%) were present at outset while 116 (34%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PkMAP, ANP, APML and AMLP attended the proceedings.
• All minority members were present.

Output

• Moved by Minister for Law and Justice, the House adopted a motion to set up a 20-member Parliamentary Committee on Amendments Proposed in National Accountability Act.
• The House also adopted a motion to grant extension to the Sub-Committee of Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms for presentation of its report.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization presented the report of the committee on the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill, 2016.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Defence presented the report of the committee on the National Command Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented the report of the committee on the Hindu Marriage Bill, 2016.
• Chairman Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research presented the report of the committee on the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill, 2015.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up nine out of 33 Starred Questions during Question Hour. The lawmakers also asked 18 Supplementary Questions.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding land grabbing in District Tharparkar and corruption in FATA.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised five Points of Order consuming ten minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of 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.