Senate Discusses Census Issues, Transacts Entire Agenda

ISLAMABAD, March 15, 2017: The Senate took up a report and a Calling Attention Notice regarding the holding of census exercise across Pakistan amidst absence of the Chairman and Leaders of the House and the Opposition on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during eighth sitting of 260th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Senate met for one hour and 53 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1509 hours against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • A member of the Panel of Chairpersons presided over the sitting in absence of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman.
  • The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition were not present.
  • Twenty-two members (21%) were present at the outset and 20 (19%) at the adjournment of sitting.
  • Parliamentary leaders of MQM, PTI, PkMAP, ANP and JUI-F attended the sitting.
  • Three minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

  • On behalf of the Chairperson of Functional Committee on Human Rights, a PPPP lawmaker presented the report regarding police torture on two boys in Islamabad.
  • A PML-N lawmaker, on behalf of the Chairperson of Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, presented the report on budgetary allocation and its utilization by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources for the fiscal year 2016-17.
  • Chairperson of Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization presented the report on the discrepancies in census forms and registration of IDPs of FATA. The House deferred the consideration and adoption of the report till Friday.
  • The House granted 30-day extension to the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization for presentation of report on the Corporate Rehabilitation Bill, 2017.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding Pakistanis stranded in Saudi Arabia and lack of transparency in the census exercise.
  • The House admitted an Adjournment Motion regarding the racial profiling of ethnicities in Punjab for discussion.

Order and Institutionalization 

  • The lawmakers spoke on 10 Points of Public Importance consuming ten minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

  • Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • 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