• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, March 8, 2019: The Senate unanimously adopted a resolution paying tribute to women on occasion of International Women’s Day while the proceedings were chaired by a female member of Panel of Presiding Officers on special invitation of the Chairman Senate, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during eighth (last) sitting of 287^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 36 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 10305 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for an hour and 31 minutes while a member of Panel of Presiding Officers chaired the rest of the sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of House attended the entire sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for two hour and 24 minutes.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 15 lawmakers (14%) were present at the outset and 27 (26%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, JI, PTI, BNP-M, ANP and PkMAP attended the sitting.
• As many as two out of four minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Tabled by a PML-N lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a resolution to pay tributes to women in connection with International Day and to further empower them. Thirteen women lawmakers spoke on this resolution for 50  minutes while Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs concluded debate on it.
• Chairman, Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage presented report on the budgetary / PSDP allocations by Information and Broadcasting Division for the Financial Year 2019-2020.
• The House granted sixty-day extension to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice for presentation of its reports on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018 (Omission of clause (2) of Article 30) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018 (Amendment of Article 260).

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 14 out of 46 Starred Questions of which one was referred to the relevant committee. Two questions were deferred on the request of the mover, nine lapsed due to the absence of the movers while 21 questions were not considered. The lawmakers also asked 24 supplementary questions.
• Moved by Leader of the House, the House passed a motion authorizing the Chairman Senate to nominate six members in Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir.

Order and Institutionalization 

• Two lawmakers including the Leader of the House spoke on points of order for five minutes.
• The Opposition lawmakers walked out from the proceedings to register their concerns over exclusion of the name of Benazir Bhutto in a government advertisement published to pay tribute to women on International Women’s Day. They returned to the House after five minutes.
• An Independent lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1151 hours but it was found complete upon counting after ringing of the bells for five minutes.
• The Session was prorogued sine die.

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