The 43rd budget session of the National Assembly was marred by protests, walkouts, boycotts, lack of quorum and poor attendance from the Treasury benches with only 68 members (20 percent) out of 342 taking part in the debate. The number of walkouts and protests increased from last year's four to 18 as opposition parties boycotted the budget proceedings over the government's refusal to telecast their speeches live on the state-run television.
Contrary to parliamentary tradition where the Leader of the Opposition opens the budget debate, Speaker allowed the Treasury members to open the debate as the opposition members boycotted the session. According to the data gathered through National Assembly secretariat, the budgetary session continued for 15 sittings and it was the fifth budget of the ruling party during the fourteenth National Assembly session. Pakistan Peoples Party legislators pointed out the lack of quorum 7 times in the house while it was found to be complete only on two occasions.
The general discussion on the budget consumed 9 sittings with 68 lawmakers (20 percent) taking part in it. Last year, the budget debate continued for 11 sittings and in 2017 the overall duration of the budget session was reduced to less than half that in 2016, data revealed.
The House took two days to approve the current and supplementary Demands for Grants. The government moved 150 Demands for Grants for the upcoming financial year and 124 Demands for Grants for the financial year ending on June 30, 2017. The opposition lawmakers submitted 1,704 Cut Motions on these demands; however, none of those were moved due to the absence of the opposition legislators from the budget proceedings.
In addition to the Finance Bill, the House considered two government and nine Private Members' bills. One of the government bills, the Companies Bill, 2017 was passed while the others were referred to the relevant committees for review.
The house also adopted two resolutions condemning the attacks on Iranian Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini and recommended the government to play its role in resolving the diplomatic crisis between the Gulf countries. According to the data, the Speaker presided over 62 percent of the budget proceedings this year as compared to 44 percent last year. The Deputy Speaker chaired 19 percent and the Panel of Chairpersons 17 percent of the proceedings.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to only one sitting and attended six percent of the proceedings while the Leader of the Opposition was present in 13 sittings and attended 34 percent of the proceedings. On average, 220 (64 percent) lawmakers attended each sitting of the session, whereas 11 lawmakers did not attend any sitting of the session including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan.
During the session, the lawmakers raised 489 points of order consuming 22 percent of the proceedings and all related to the political issues instead of the business of the House. The minority lawmakers also staged a walkout against the death of a Christian sanitary worker in Umerkot, Sindh, due to alleged negligence of doctors.
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