ISLAMABAD, November 15, 2021: The Senate adopted four resolutions and referred seven private members’ bills to the relevant committees for consideration, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet on Monday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the fifth sitting of 315^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and 27 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 05:00 pm.
• The chairman presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy chairman was also present.
• The leader of the house attended the entire sitting.
• The leader of the opposition attended the sitting for three hours and six minutes.
• As many as 28 lawmakers (28%) were present at the outset and 18 (18%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, JI, PML, PkMAP, BAP, PTI, PML-F and JUI-F attended the sitting.
• Three minority lawmaker were present.

Output

• Moved by a PTI lawmaker, the House passed the Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• The House witnessed introduction of seven private members’ bills which were referred to the relevant committees for consideration. These bills were the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021] (Amendment of Article 37); the Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Protection of Journalist Bill, 2021; the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021] (Amendment of Articles 111, 140, 260 and 275).
• Seven bills on the agenda were deferred while a bill – the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2021 – was dropped due to absence of relevant lawmakers.
• Moved by an Independent lawmaker, the House passed a motion to withdraw the Federal Board of Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
• The House adopted four private members’ resolution recommending the government to name `Chand Tara Chowk’ near Shakarparian Islamabad as Wing Commander `Nauman Akram Shaeed Chowk’, take immediate measures to reduce the level of air pollution, establish a University of Science and Technology in the name of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan and include his life and struggles of in the national educational curriculum and ensure recitation of the Holy Quran with Urdu translation and Darood Sharif at the commencement of every public meeting.
• A resolution on the agenda was deferred as the Chair directed the mover to redraft it.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• Seven lawmakers participated in debate on a motion under rule 218 about pendency of cases with Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court as of July 31, 2021 and policy steps being taken by the Government to ensure their early and speedy disposal. The debate on this continued for an hour and 12 minutes while four other motions under rule 218 were deferred.
• The House passed a motion to refer the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to the joint sitting of the parliament.
• Seven lawmakers spoke on points of public importance for 34 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition walked out from the House for 13 minutes against political victimization of their leadership.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 05:19 pm but it was found complete upon counting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 11:00 am.

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