ISLAMABAD, May 28, 2021: The Senate took up most of its agenda on Friday and consumed 69 percent of the proceedings’ time in points of public importance, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of 311th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for an hour and 47 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 11:00 am.
• The Chairman presided over the entire proceedings.
• The Deputy Chairman was also present.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 40 lawmakers (40 percent) were present at the outset and 28 (28 percent) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PTI, MQMP, PPPP, PML-Q, JUIP and ANP attended the sitting.
• One out of four minority lawmakers was present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up all 11 starred questions while lawmakers also asked three supplementary questions.
• Minister of state for parliamentary affairs responded to a calling attention notice (CAN) regarding difficulties being faced by the people of Southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and erstwhile FATA due to complete closure of Dera Ismail Khan Airport. The Chair also gave a ruling to submit viable plan on it within one month.
• A PPPP lawmaker withdrew her CAN while debate on motion of thanks to the President could not be started due to non-submission of speakers’ name to the Chair by the parliamentary leaders.
• Sixteen lawmakers spoke on points of public importance for an hour and 14 minutes (69 percent of the proceedings’ time) which were mainly related to water distribution among the provinces, smuggling of petroleum products from Iran, law and order situation in Sindh and Balochistan and membership to Senators in the Board of Directors of federal government departments.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, May 31, 2021 at 03:30 pm.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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