ISLAMABAD, April 27, 2018:  Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs presented a copy of the Finance Bill 2018 in Senate on Friday, observes the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of proceedings of first sitting of 277^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for 56 minutes while the sitting remained suspended for 14 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started four minutes late against the scheduled time of 1830 hours.
• The Chairman chaired the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, JI,  PkMAP, NP and JUI-F  attended the sitting.
• Forty members (39% of the total membership – 104) were present at the outset and 46 members (44%) at the end of the sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs presented a copy of the Finance Bill, 2018 in the House containing the Annual Budget Statement.
• Federal Minister for Finance also sought Senate recommendations, if any, to be forwarded to the National Assembly on the Finance Bill 2018.
• On behalf of the Chairman Standing Committee on Finance, a member of the committee presented reports of the Committee on the Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Bill, 2018; the Voluntary Declaration of Domestic Assets Bill, 2018; the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Protection of Economic Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2018. All these reports were adopted by the House after voice voting.

 Order and Institutionalization 

• Four lawmakers spoke on five Points of Order for 14 minutes.
• The entire Opposition walked out of the House for three minutes against adoption of reports related to legislative proposals about tax amnesty.
• The Opposition also protested on floor of the House for three minutes against the government for presenting budget of next fiscal year (2018-19) despite completion of its tenure on May 31, 2018.

Transparency

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

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