ISLAMABAD, September 28, 2016: The Senate adjourned prematurely without taking its business due to opposition parties’ boycott of the proceedings on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 253^rd session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for an hour and 59 minutes.
• The proceedings remained suspended for 37 minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1532 hours against its scheduled time of 1530 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for six minutes while a member of Panel of Chairpersons chaired the remaining proceedings.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and five minutes.
• Eighteen members (17%) were present at the outset and 14 (13%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PTI, BNP-M, ANP and NP attended the sitting.
• Three minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take up legislative business appearing on Orders of the Day.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 11 out of 13 Starred Questions were taken up and responded to by the relevant ministers during Question Hour. The lawmakers also asked 32 Supplementary Questions.

Order and Institutionalization 

• The entire opposition boycotted the proceedings to protest against provincial government’s move to stop the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly from attending a rally in Lahore. The opposition lawmakers walked out at 1646 hours and did not return to the House.
• A PPPP lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1648 hours that led to the suspension of proceedings at 1653 hours. However, the quorum was not found complete when the House reassembled at 1730 hours, forcing the sitting to be adjourned.

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