ISLAMABAD, January 17, 2022: The Senate adopted three resolutions and passed two private member’s bills on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the sixth sitting of 317th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and 52 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 04:00 pm.
• The chairman presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy chairman was not present.
• The leaders of the house and the opposition attended the entire sitting.
• The Prime Minister was not present.
• As many as 19 lawmakers (19%) were present at the outset and 21 (21%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI, PML-N, PkMAP, JI, PML and NP attended the sitting.
• Three out of four minority lawmaker was present.

 Output

• Moved by a PTI lawmaker, the Housed passed two bills including the National Highways Safety (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• The House adopted three resolutions demanding the government to empower the Copyright Board regarding fixing of the royalties for licensing, fund the Metro Bus as well as Circular Railway Projects including auxiliary routes in Quetta from Federal PSDP and implement the agreement concluded with the Federal Government employees in 2021.
• The House referred ten private members’ bills to relevant committees which were the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Bill, 2022; the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Amendment of Articles 175A, 181, 182, 183, 184, 195, 196, 197 and 209); the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Amendment of Articles 1, 51, 59, 106, 154, 175A, 198 and 218); the Prime University of Nursing, Sciences and Technology (PUNST) Islamabad Bill, 2021; the Children (Pledging of Labour) (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Establishment of the Office of Wafaqi Mohtasib (Ombudsman) (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Islamabad Capital Territory Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans Bill, 2021.
• Two bills including the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill, 2021 were deferred.
• A bill – the Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Bill, 2021 – was withdrawn by a PTI lawmaker following a motion under rule 115.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House debated three motions under rule 218 which were about increase in atrocities of Indian armed forces in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, performance of Capital Development Authority and increase in electricity prices of Rupees 4.74 per unit by NEPRA. Nine lawmakers spoke on these motions for an hour and 20 minutes.
• Two other motions under rule 218 were deferred.
• Seven lawmakers spoke on points of public importance for 15 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 10:30 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