ISLAMABAD, May 17, 2016: The Senate on Tuesday discussed the Annual Reports of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) during the 7^th sitting of its ongoing 248^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for three hours and 43 minutes.
• The sitting started one minute late against schedule time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting and the Opposition Leader was present for 70 minutes.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• 12 (11%) senators were present at the start and 22 (21%) at the time of adjournment.
• Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PML-F, JUI-F, ANP, MQM, JI, PML-N and PPPP were present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.

Output

• The House witnessed introduction of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016 which was referred to the Standing Committee on Information Technology with remarks by the Chair to include the Human Rights Committee during consideration process of this bill.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took 26 out of 30 starred questions appearing on the agenda while the questions related to Ministry of Law & Justice were deferred on the request of relevant minister. In addition, the lawmakers also asked 31 supplementary questions.
• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) about the failure of the Government to fill 600 vacancies of doctors, nurses, paramedics, security personnel and other staff occurred after up-gradation of PIMS as Medical University in the year 2013.
• Another CAN about the lowest ranking of Pakistan in the use of bio technology in agriculture sector was dropped due to absence of mover.
• The House discussed the Annual Reports of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for the years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015. Eleven lawmakers, Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination and Chairman Senate spoke on it for 115 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• Nine Point of Public Importance consumed 25 minutes of the sitting.
• The Opposition walked out of the House for three minutes over unsatisfactory reply to a question.
• MQM lawmaker walked out of the House for one minute over water shortage in Karachi and alleged highhandedness against MQM workers.

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