Senate Adopts Recommendations on Finance Bill, 2019

  • Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, June 24, 2019: The Senate passed a motion to adopt recommendations on the Finance Bill, 2019 containing the Annual Budget Statement as reported by the Standing Committee on Finance, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the eighth and last sitting of 290th session:

 Members’ Participation

  • The House met for 54 minutes.
  • The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1630 hours.
  • The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
  • The Deputy Chairman was not present.
  • The Leader of the House attended the sitting for 38 minutes.
  • The Leader of the Opposition was present for 33 minutes.
  • The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 12 lawmakers (11%) were present at the outset and 33 (32%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of BNP-M, PPPP, PTI and PML-N attended the sitting.
  • Two out of four minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

  • Chairman, Standing Committee on Finance presented report on the proposals for making recommendations on the Finance Bill, 2019, containing the Annual Budget Statement.
  •  The House adopted recommendations on the Finance Bill, 2019 containing the Annual Budget Statement as reported by the Standing Committee on Finance. A total of 65 recommendations were made on the Finance Bill, 2019; 68 on Public Sector Development Program and 94 general recommendations were made on the federal budget.
  • The House passed three motions under Rule 194 (1) granting extension to Standing Committees on Water Resources, Planning, Development and Reforms and Interior for presenting their reports.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Five lawmakers participated in the discussion on federal budget consuming 32 minutes while Minister of State for Revenue also spoke on it for one minute.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • The Session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • The attendance of lawmakers is available on the website.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted.