New Chairman and Deputy Chairman elected as 54 Senators take oath

ISLAMABAD, March 12, 2012: The 80th session of Senate’s lasting seven hours and 17 minutes unanimously elected the new Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Upper House. Fifty-four new Senators took oath.

Starting an hour and eight minutes late, the sitting witnessed relatively better attendance of Senators than the previous sittings with 70 present at the outset and 40 at the end of the sitting.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

  • The Senate met for seven hours and 17 minutes.
  • The sitting commenced at 1108 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The House proceedings started late by an hour and eight minutes.
  • A Member of the Panel of Chairpersons acted as the Presiding Officer during the election of Chairman. Later the new Chairman chaired the sitting and conducted the election of Deputy Chairman.
  • Seventy Members (70 % of total Membership) were present at the start, while forty Senators (39 % of total Membership) were present when the sitting was adjourned.

Transparency

  • Information on Senators’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN