ISLAMABAD, November 8, 2019: The Senate sitting was adjourned on Friday amid lack of quorum and opposition’s walkout from the proceedings, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 294^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 53 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 43 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 31 minutes.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 17 lawmakers (16%) were present at the outset and eight (7%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, BNP-M, JI and MQM attended the sitting.
• As many as two out of four minority lawmakers were present.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House continued discussion on a commenced Motion under Rule 218 regarding alleged political victimization, denial of fundamental rights to members of Opposition parties and revocation of citizenship of a former Member of Parliament. Ten lawmakers including Leaders of the House and the Opposition spoke on it for an hour and 33 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization 

• Two lawmakers spoke on points of order for three minutes.
• The opposition walked out from the proceedings at 1212 hours over the remarks of the Leader of the House against PPPP leadership. They did not return to the House till its adjournment.
• A PPPP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1218 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes. The quorum did not complete after the bells and the House was adjourned to meet again on November 11, 2019 (Monday) at 1530 hours.

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 proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted