• Four Private Members’ Bills Introduced in the House of Federation

ISLAMABAD, December 19, 2016: The Senate adopted three resolutions, including withdrawal of high denomination note of Rs. 5000 from circulation and passed one bill during first sitting of its 257^th session on Monday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for five hours and seven minutes.
• The sitting started one minute behind the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The House took prayer break of 18 minutes.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was also present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 14 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was not present.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PML-F, MQM, PPPP, PML, BNP-M, PkMAP and JUI-F attended the sitting.
• Twenty-six (25% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 15 (14%) at the end of sitting.
• One minority legislator attended the proceedings.

 Output

• The House adopted three resolutions to withdraw high denomination note of Rs. 5000 from circulation; augment efforts for rehabilitation of quake victims in Balochistan and empower Senate of Pakistan to pass the Money Bill, including the Finance Bill.

• Two resolutions were dropped due to absence of the movers, demanding fixation of Rs. 20,000 as minimum salary of Government and non-Government employees and to designate a place for holding public meetings and agitations by the political parties in Islamabad.
• The  House passed the Corporate Rehabilitation Bill, 2015 and witnessed introduction of four private members’ bills, including the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Islamabad Capital   Territory Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment of Article 251) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Substitution of Article 251).
• A bill – the Drug Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016 – was withdrawn by its mover.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Defence presented reports on the National Command Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and public petition no. 1471 of Mr. Muhammad Tariq, JSO, College of E&ME, and Rawalpindi.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House discussed three motions under Rule 218 regarding safeguarding of religious freedom in the country, planning and performance of the Capital Development Authority and tests for recruitments in the Government Departments through NTS and other agencies.
• Two other motions about performance of the Estate Office, Islamabad and role of the Pakistan Sports Board in promotion of sports in the country were not taken up due to early adjournment of sitting due to lack of quorum.

Order and Institutionalization

• MQM lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1903 hours, following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. However, the quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the Chair adjourned the sitting until Tuesday.

 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