ISLAMABAD: Female members showed more interest in the legislative business than their male colleagues during the recently-concluded session of the National Assembly as out of 18 private member bills tabled in the house 12 were moved by women MNAs.

“Almost 46 per cent legislators (115 out of 338 MNAs) participated in the proceedings of the 18th session of the National Assembly that concluded on January 29,” says the parliament performance update report of Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) released to media here on Tuesday.

The assembly remained in session for 50 hours and one minute over the 15 sittings. However, every sitting started late by an average of 28 minutes, says the report based on direct observation by observers deputed by Fafen.

The NA passed 10 bills whereas nine ordinances were also laid before the house during the 15 sittings. However, the house did not take up 42 per cent of the agenda items mentioned on the ‘Orders of the day.’

As many as 646 questions were raised during the course of the session, of which 420 were responded to by the concerned ministers. A total of 306 supplementary questions were put forward by the members. However, relevant ministers were found absent in nine out of 12 question hours.

The average length of a sitting was three hours and 20 minutes. The shortest sitting lasted one hour and 34 minutes. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was present in all the sittings of the session.

As many as 17 calling attention notices, out of 30 mentioned on the ‘Orders of the day’ were discussed. These notices had been submitted by 47 members – 18 of them from the PPP, 17 from the PML-N, five from the MQM, six from the PML-Q and one from the JUI-F.

Out of the 18 private members’ bills, four were moved by the PPP MNAs, five by the PML-N members, eight by the PML-Q and one by the MQM.

There were 23 resolutions on the agenda of the NA session but only six of them were taken up for discussion.

Most of the time of the session was consumed by the members while speaking on points of order. As many as 175 points of order were also raised during the session.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/3/2010