ISLAMABAD, March 13, 2017: The Senate witnessed adoption of a Private Member’s resolution and introduction of a constitutional amendment bill amid treasury’s opposition on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of 260^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and four minutes.
• The sitting started at 1502 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting whereas the Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 53 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was not present.
• Seventeen members (16%) were present at the outset and 15 (14%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, MQM, PTI, PkMAP, and JUI-F attended the sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• The Private Members introduced the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Article 70); the Pakistan Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2017; the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) (Amendment) Bill, 2017; the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2017; the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The House referred all these bills to relevant standing committees. However, the constitutional amendment bill was introduced amid treasury’s opposition.
• The House rejected the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University Islamabad (Amendment) Bill, 2016 whereas the Islamabad National Hospital Bill, 2017 was withdrawn and the Ratification of International Treaties Bill, 2017 was deferred.
• The House adopted a resolution urging the government to revive the Waseela-e-Haq and Waseela-e-Rozgar schemes launched during the previous regime while a resolution regarding monetization of vehicles policy for government officers was rejected. Furthermore, two resolutions were deferred while one was dropped due to the absence of relevant lawmakers.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House held discussions on Motions under Rule 218 regarding disappearance of bloggers, enforcement of Islamic Banking System, forced acquisition of land by ICT administration for lawyers’ colony and the present status of Telephone Industry of Pakistan (TIP). Twelve lawmakers participated in the discussions while the relevant ministers made statements on them.
• Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication made a policy statement regarding her ministry’s performance before the House consuming six minutes of the proceedings.
• Minister of State for Water and Power responded to the matter of public importance regarding vacancies in QESCO, Balochistan, consuming five minutes of the sitting.
• The House discussed an Adjournment Motion on the increase in prices of petroleum products for 13 minutes. Two Senators and the minister concerned took part in the discussion.

Order and Institutionalization 

• The lawmakers spoke on five Points of Order, consuming 21 minutes of the proceedings.

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