ISLAMABAD, November 22, 2017: The Senate held a discussion on an Adjournment Motion regarding recent increase in the prices of the petroleum products, observes the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings of third sitting of 270^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 53 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 14 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1530 hours against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 32 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 23 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of JUI-F, PkMAP, PPPP, BNP-M, PTI and MQM attended the sitting.
• As many as 14 lawmakers (13% of the total membership- 104) were present at the outset and 16 (15%) at the end of sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take up the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 seeking reallocation of the National Assembly seats among federating units.
• The House deferred the half yearly report of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in respect of its activities as required under section 53 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016. The Chair reserved his ruling on the interpretation of the section 53 of PECA, 2016.
• The House granted 45-day extension to the Standing Committee of Information for presentation of its report on the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
• The Minister for Law and Justice moved a motion to discuss the Annual Report of the National Economic Council for the Financial Year 2015-16.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Chair rejected an Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding the statement of the Afghan President about CPEC.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding vulnerability of drug industry to corruption and the vacancies in the Customs Collectorate of Quetta. The relevant ministers made statement on these issues while the CAN regarding vacancies in Customs Collectorate was referred to the relevant standing committee for further consideration.
• As many as eight lawmakers participated in a discussion on an AM regarding the increase in prices of petroleum products. The discussion continued for 41 minutes.
• The Chair closed the debate on the division of power among state institutions and reserved his ruling on the subject matter of the debate for Friday (November 24).
• As many as 11 lawmakers spoke on Points of Public Importance consuming 23 minutes of the proceedings.
• The Minister of State for Interior responded to a Point of Public Importance (PoPI) regarding kidnapping of Balochistan Ameer of Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith. As many as two PoPIs were deferred due to absence of the relevant ministers.

Order and Institutionalization 

• The lawmakers did not raise any point of order.
• A JUI-F lawmaker staged a walkout from proceedings at 1739 hours when the Chair did not allow him to raise a Point of Public Importance during the debate on the Adjournment Motion. The lawmaker did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.

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 proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted