NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF PAKISTAN FAFEN PARLIAMENT MONITOR 10th SESSION May 24 - May 31, 2019

FREE AND FAIR ELECTION NETWORK www.fafen.org www.openparliament.pk ABBREVIATIONS ANP Awami National Party

AMLP Awami Muslim League Pakistan

BNP Balochistan National Party

CANs Calling Attention Notices

IND Independent Member

MQMP Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan

PML Pakistan Muslim League

PML-N Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)

PPPP Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians

PTI Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

GDA Grand Democratic Alliance

BAP Balochistan Awami Party

JWP Jamhoori Wattan Party

MMAP Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TRANSACTS ONLY 30% Total Sittings SCHEDULED BUSINESS DURING 10TH SESSION 4 133 Lawmakers Participate in the Proceedings ISLAMABAD, May 14, 2019: The National Assembly of Pakistan (NA) addressed less than one third (or 30 percent) of its scheduled business during its 10th session that continued between May 24, 2019 and May 31, 2019, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its session report. Working Of 342 lawmakers, 73 (21 percent) including 50 men and 23 women Days contributed to the proceedings of the House by sponsoring various parliamentary interventions and/or contributing in the debates. The active lawmakers belonged to BNP-M, JUI, MMAP, MQM, PML-N, PPPP and PTI. On the other hand, 268 (78 percent) lawmakers including 222 men and 46 women did not participate in the proceedings throughout 8 the session. The lawmakers who did not participate in the proceedings belonged to AMLP, ANP, BAP, BNP-M, GDA, JWP, MMAP, MQM, PML, PML-N, PPPP, PTI and four independent candidates. The overall business including regular and supplementary agenda brought before the House during ninth session comprised one government and 11 private members' bills, five resolutions, six Calling Cumulative Attention Notices (CANs), a standing committee report, 64 questions, Duration HIGHLIGHTS five Motions under Rule 259, two matters of public importance under Rule-87, a Motion under Rule 244(B) and a discussion on the Motion of 4 Thanks to the President for his annual address to the Parliament. 1 Session, Duration and Attendance Hours & 42 Minutes The 10th session of the National Assembly spanned over eight working days and comprised of four sittings held between May 22 and May 31, 2019. The cumulative duration of the sittings was four hours and 42 minutes while the proceedings remained uninterrupted. Each sitting, on Total an average, started 14 minutes behind the scheduled time and lasted Break Duration for an hour and ten minutes. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend any sitting during the session. The

SSION parliamentary leader of PPPP attended four sittings and was followed by leaders of PML-N and BNP-M who attended three sittings each. The 0 leaders of ANP and BAP attended two sittings each while the leaders of AMLP, PML, MQM, MMAP and GDA did not attend any sitting. Minutes According to the headcount conducted by FAFEN observer, an average 83 lawmakers were present at the outset and 125 at the SE adjournment of each sitting. The Speaker attended two sittings and presided over the House for an hour and 40 minutes (35 percent of the

www.fafen.org 01 proceedings) while and Deputy Speaker attended three sittings and chaired three hours and two minutes (65 percent of the proceedings).

Average 2 Assembly Output Sitting Delay This section deals with the legislative business, resolutions, amendment to the rules, reports and documents presented before the House during the session. 14 2.1 Legislation The legislative business scheduled for 10th session included 11 private Minutes members' bills and a government-sponsored bill. The House referred four private members' bills to the relevant standing committees following their first reading i.e. introduction in the House while a bill titled the Minorities Access to Higher Education Bill, 2018 was rejected. Moreover, Members at Outset a proposal for amending the Article 239 of the Constitution was deferred (Average) and an amendment to the Civil Servants Act, 1973 was dropped due to absence of the concerned lawmaker. The House left the remaining four private members' bills and a government bill unaddressed. The private members' legislation was sponsored by the lawmakers belonging to PPPP, PTI and MQM. PPPP lawmakers sponsored six bills, PTI four and 83 MQM one. present Below is given brief description of the bills passed by or introduced in the House.

2.1.1 Introduced Bills:

Members at End 1 The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Section 329A) (Average) The bill seeks to criminalize the concealment of the birth of a child to protect HIGHLIGHTS the lives of children abandoned by the biological parents at the time of birth. The bill also provides for the confidentiality of the mother's name in case of handing over the custody of an illegitimate child to a government child protection center. 125 Mover: Nafeesa Inayat Ullah, PTI present Date of Introduction: May 28, 2019

2 The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 25)

The proposed amendment seeks to qualify the already-guaranteed equality of citizens before the law by explicitly mentioning that the state shall not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, Maximum ethnic or social origin, color, age, disability, religion or language. Member Mover: Nafisa Shah, PPPP

SSION Date of Introduction: May 28, 2019

3 The Federal Newborn Screening Bill, 2019 205 The bill provides for developing a newborn screening mechanism in the public health system in order to eliminate or reduce child mortality, morbidity and disabilities. SE Mover: Nafeesa Inayat Ullah, PTI Date of Introduction: May 28, 2019

www.fafen.org 02 SITTINGS DURATION (hh:mm)

00:20 00:19 00:17

00:00 1 2 3 4

KEY MEMBERS’ ATTENDANCE

Speaker Deputy Speaker Prime Minister Leader of the Opposition

Attended Presided over Attended Presided over Attended Spent Attended Spent 2 35% 3 65% 0 0% 0 0% Sittings I Proceedings Sittings I Proceedings Sittings I time in the House Sittings I time in the House

MEMBERS’ ATTENDANCE 187

141

111 103

79 77 58 60

1 2 3 4 Members at Outset Members at End www.fafen.org 03 PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS ATTENDANCE

Syed Naveed Qammar M. Akhtar Mengal Rana Tanveer Amir Haider Khan 4 3 3 2 PPPP I attended BNP-M I attended PML-N I attended ANP I attended

Khalid Hussain Magsi Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui Shah Zain Bugtti Asad Mehmood 2 0 0 0 MMAP attended BAP I attended GDA I attended JWP I attended I

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui Ch. Tariq Bashir Cheema 0 0 0 MQMP PML AMLP I attended I attended I attended

www.fafen.org 04 4 The Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2019

The amendment provides for imposing fine for delayed or no registration of a newborn child with the local government authorities. The bill seeks to ensure the timely registration of children. Mover: Nafeesa Inayat Ullah, PTI 12 Date of Introduction: May 28, 2019 Total 2.2 Resolutions Bills The lawmakers initiated six resolutions in the National Assembly during its 10th session. The House adopted only one of these resolutions moved as supplementary agenda to offer condolences on the demise of the Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Mr. Ali Muhammad Khan Mahar. The remaining five resolutions appearing on the agenda were initiated by private lawmakers and were not addressed during the session. The unaddressed resolutions urged the government to send a delegation to visit Roza of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), 4 provide clean drinking water in educational institutions, and take steps to control manufacturing of spurious medicines, price hike, and use of Bills narcotics. Introduced 2.3 ReportsAmendments

The House did not take up a motion for presentation of the Standing Committee on Interior's report regarding the National Database and Registration Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

HIGHLIGHTS 2.4 Amendments to Rules of Procedure 29 The House did not take up four motions for amending the Assembly's Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, 2007. These proposals for Starred amendments were initiated by the private lawmakers belonging to PTI Questions and PPPP.

3 Representation and Responsiveness

This section gives statistical as well as qualitative overview of legislator's interventions in the House – Questions, Calling Attention Notices (CANs), Motions under Rule 259 or any other motions – for the oversight of government and to articulate issues of public interest and importance SSION 1 3.1 Questions Report A total of 64 questions including 29 starred questions and 35 unstarred Presented questions were listed for answers during the session. The House took up only six out of 29 starred questions during the proceedings. Under the

SE Assembly Rules of Procedure, the government is required to respond to a starred question orally as well as in writing. The remaining 23 starred

www.fafen.org 05 questions remained unaddressed and were taken as read in absence of their movers or due to lapse of the Question Hour. The lawmakers asked 13 supplementary questions as well for further elucidation of the answers. As many as 19 questions were sponsored by female lawmakers belonging to JUI, PML-N, PPPP and PTI while male lawmakers belonging to BNP-M, JI, MMAP, MQM, PML-N, PPPP, PTI and an independent 1 candidate raised 45 questions. The questions appearing on the list were Resolutions addressed to four ministries of the government and their break-up is as Adopted following: Ministries Grand Total Defence Pr oduction 1 Interior 57

Inter-Provincial Coordination 2

Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development 4 6 Grand Total 64 Calling Attention 3.2 Calling Attention Notices Notices The lawmakers raised six CANs seeking government's response on the issues concerning non-functioning of basic health units in Islamabad, proposal of 51 percent cut in the budget of Higher Education Commission, delay in construction of 177 schools in Abbottabad and delay in constitution of Child Rights Commission. These notices were sponsored by the lawmakers belongings to PML-N, PTI and PPPP. The relevant government ministers responded to only two of the notices HIGHLIGHTS 1 while remaining four were left unaddressed. Motion - 3.3 Motions 244 (B) The House passed a Motion under Rule 244(B) authorizing the Speaker of the National Assembly to nominate 15 members for the Parliamentary Committee on Protection of Minorities from Forced Conversions. Moreover, the House did not address five Motions under Rule 259 on the matters of public importance initiated by private lawmakers belonging to PM-N, PTI and PPPP. The House also skipped a Motion of Thanks to the President for his annual address to the Parliament.

SSION 5 4 Order and Institutionalization Motion Order and institutionalization are important for an efficient and under Rule productive legislature. This section provides information about the members' Question of Privilege, Points of Order, Quorum and any 259 instances of walkout, protest or boycott during the proceeding. SE

www.fafen.org 07 4.1 Points of Order/ Matters under Rule

As many as 12 Points of Order (POs) were raised during the proceedings that consumed an hour and 32 minutes. These POs highlighted the issues related to law and order, media freedom and political matters. Moreover, the House did not take up two matters of public importance under Rule 87 raised by the lawmakers belonging to PPPP and MMAP 12 regarding the ban on an Indian mobile game Players Unknown Members Battlegrounds (PUBG) and allocation of budget for Quetta-Karachi National Highway which were not taken up by the House. raising Points of Order 4.2 Walkouts and Protests

A MMAP lawmaker raised a Question of Privilege (QoP) stating that a misleading statement by the government in response to his question about opening and closing time of Lowari tunnel had breached his privilege as a parliamentarian. The question was forwarded to the 1 relevant committee for its report.

Walkout

HIGHLIGHTS 1

Protest SSION SE

www.fafen.org 08 ABOUT FAFEN

§ FAFEN is one of the most credible networks of civil society organizations working for strengthening citizens' voice and accountability in Pakistan since 2006. § FAFEN has harnessed information technology for real-time monitoring, facilitation and technical backstopping of partners for effective and result- based program delivery. § FAFEN is the only civil society group to have been invited by the Judicial Commission to present the evidence of illegalities and irregularities documented through the course of General Elections 2013 Observation. The systemic and procedural issues identified by FAFEN have been acknowledged by the commission in its detailed findings. § FAFEN's recommendations for electoral reforms have contributed to the work of Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reforms. § FAFEN's advocacy for parliamentary transparency, accountability and reforms has shaped public discourse on parliamentary reforms. Improved citizens' access to parliamentary information including daily public release of parliamentarians' attendance records can be directly attributed to FAFEN's work. § FAFEN deployed 18,000 and 40,000 non-partisan and trained observers for the systematic observation of general election 2008 and 2013, respectively, largest citizens' observation ever undertaken in Pakistan. § FAFEN's evidence and recommendations for reforms have improved the quality of public and political discourse on elections, its issues and need for reforms. Leading political parties and media houses extensively use FAFEN's election findings and analysis to build a case for reforms. § With more than 25,000 followers on Twitter and around 144,000 on Facebook, FAFEN is considered one of the most reliable sources of electoral and parliamentary information in the country.

Free and Fair Election Network www.fafen.org www.openparliament.pk www.parliamentfiles.com

This report is based on direct observation of the proceedings of the National Assembly conducted by Free and Fair Election Network. Every effort has been made to keep this report, which deals with on-floor performance of the Members, accurate and comprehensive. Errors and omissions are excepted.