ISLAMABAD, December 21, 2016: The Senate discussed the government decision to place five regulatory bodies under control of ministries during third sitting of 257^th session on Wednesday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

The Chairman took suo motu notice on it during the last sitting and wanted the government to brief the House on the latest development.

Federal Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid explained the government’s position in 13 minutes while 14 other lawmakers also took part in the debate consuming 54 minutes of the proceedings.

Following are some key observations of the House business:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for four hours and 17 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1430 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours and 53 minutes while rest of the proceedings was chaired by the Deputy Chairman.
• The House had a prayer break for 16 minutes.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for 23 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition remained present for two hours and 44 minutes.
• Parliamentary leaders of all parties except ANP, PTI and JI attended the sitting.
• Fourteen members (13% of the total membership – 104) were present at the outset and 18 (17%) at end of the sitting.

Output

• The House passed the Companies (Appointment of Legal Advisers) (Amendment) Bill, 2016 while the Public Private Partnership Authority Bill, 2016 was referred to the relevant committee after introduction.
• The House witnessed presentation of reports on the Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2016, murder of Prof. Dr. Shahid Nawaz, cardiologist of PIMS and 2^nd Biannual Monitoring on the Implementation of National Finance Commission Award (January-June, 2016).

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The Chair deferred debate on an admitted adjournment motion until tomorrow. The motion was on regarding a report of the Commission on incident of terrorism at Civil Hospital Quetta on August 8, 2016.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first notice was about non-protection of Margalla Hills National Park while the other CAN was related to the non-functioning of Central Laboratory for Environmental Analysis and Networking (CLEAN) used for sampling and analysis of air pollution.
• Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination presented report on the recommendations of Functional Committee on Devolution Process.
• Two Adjournment Motions were dropped due to the movers’ absence while another motion was not admitted to be found in contravention with Rule 87 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business 2012.
• Fourteen out 29 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up.

Order and Institutionalization 

• The House discussed six Points of Public Importance for 12 minutes.

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