ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday passed three government bills amid low attendance of lawmakers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) in its Daily Fact sheet. Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of the 49th session. Members’ participation: The National Assembly met for three hours and 41 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 22 minutes due to prayer break. The sitting started at 1615 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours. The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and six minutes while Deputy Speaker presided rest of the proceedings. The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting. The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 61 minutes. As many as 40 (12%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 80 (23%) at the adjournment of the sitting. The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, APML and ANP attended the sitting. Five minority lawmakers were present. The House passed two government bills appearing on regular agenda which included the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the National University of Technology Bill, 2017. A bill -the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017 - appearing on the supplementary agenda was also passed by House after rejecting a clause of the bill. Parliamentary Secretary for Finance presented report on the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017. On behalf of the Chairman Sanding Committee on Science and Technology, a member of the Committee presented report on the National University of Technology Bill, 2017.
