The National Assembly carried out heavy legislative agenda during its 39th session and passed 17 bills, including two private members' bills. It is for the first time that the incumbent National Assembly has passed a private member bill since 2013. The passed bills are related to economy, judiciary, women and children rights, institutional reforms, climate change and health.
The House also referred 14 new legislative proposals, including nine private members' bills and five government bills, to the relevant standing committees for review. The recently concluded 39th session of the Lower House of the Parliament comprised nine sittings where four different resolutions were passed on Quebec mosque attack, Kashmir Solidarity Day, performance of PTV and simplification of pension procedure.
This entire legislation took place in the absence of the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PTI Chairman Imran Khan were amongst the members who did not attend the entire session while the leader of the opposition attended only one sitting. Moreover, 20 more lawmakers also remained absent throughout the session. From the 39th session, the National Assembly Secretariat has also started sharing proceedings of the House on its website, which has been one of the hallmarks of parliamentary transparency.
According to a report of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), the House did not address a quarter of its agenda during the session. "The leftover agenda included the private members' interventions on issues of public importance. The majority of calling attention notices were addressed but the motions under Rule 259 were not taken up for discussions.
No adjournment motion could become part of the business due to the presence of motion of thanks to the president on orders of the day. The motion of thanks has been pending on the agenda since July 2016 and was not discussed even once during the session," the FAFEN report said.
The session also witnessed scuffle between members of the ruling PML-N and opposition PTI. The following sitting after the incident was adjourned without taking up any agenda. Moreover, lawmakers also staged six walkouts to record their protest over various issues, including increase in electricity tariff, absence of ministers from the sitting and attack on PPPP leader Shaukat Basra.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan, Leader of Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah are among 22 lawmakers who remained absent during the entire session.
Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, who normally attends the session regularly, could not attend this session more than once due to injury. Shah was enjoying horse riding in Sukkur when he fell down and received leg injury.
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