Senate Continues Debate on the Supplementary Budget

ISLAMABAD, January 25, 2019: The Senate continued the discussion on the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fifth sitting of the 286th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for an hour and nine minutes.
  • The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
  • The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of House attended the entire sitting.
  • The Leader of the Opposition was not present.
  • The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 11 lawmakers (10%) were present at the outset and 15 (14%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PTI, BNP-M, MQM and ANP attended the sitting.
  • As many as two out of four minority lawmakers were present.

Output

  • Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented a report of the committee on a Point of Public Importance regarding the procedure for including names in the Black List and its legal value.
  • Chairman, Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development presented a report of the committee on the Companies Profits (Workers’ Participation) (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
  • The House adopted the report of Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs on the depreciation of Pakistani rupee against dollar.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • As many as four lawmakers participated in the debate on the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 consuming 57 minutes of the proceedings.
  • Moved by the Leader of the House, the House passed a motion authorizing the Chairman to constitute a committee with the mandate to look into the grievances of people of backward areas.
  • The Minister of State for Revenue responded to a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) about the miseries of displaced residents of Quaid-e-Azam University land, who were promised accommodation in the model villages by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
  • The House deferred a CAN about missing revenue targets.

Order and Institutionalization 

  • As many as two lawmakers spoke on Points of Order (POs) consuming five minutes of the proceedings.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on January 28, 2019 (Monday) at 1530 hours.

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