ISLAMABAD, July 9, 2018: The Senate on Monday adopted a resolution to abolish Riba and discussed the political situation in the perspective of upcoming general elections, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the first sitting of the 279^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for five hours and 19 minutes while proceedings remained suspended for 45 minutes due to two breaks for prayers.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Chairman Senate presided over the entire sitting.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for three hours and 40 minutes.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for three hours and 47 minutes.
• As many as 20 (19%) lawmakers were present at the outset and nine (8%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PPPP and MQM attended the sitting.
• One minority lawmaker was present

  Output

• Sponsored by PTI lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution urging the government to take necessary steps to abolish Riba at the earliest and replace at least 30% of all new Government debts with shariah compliant mode.
• Two resolutions on the agenda were deferred on the requests of their respective movers while one was dropped due to absence of its sponsors.
• A bill – the National Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2017 – was deferred on the request of relevant lawmaker who did not attend the sitting.
• The House witnessed presentation of recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance on the President’s Salary, Allowances and Privileges (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House debated a motion under Rule 218 regarding energy crisis and the steps taken by the last government to address the same. Five lawmakers spoke on it for 14 minutes while Minister for Information concluded debate on it during his six-minute speech.
• Four other motions under Rule 218 on the agenda were deferred on the request of their movers.
• Five lawmakers spoke on as many points of public importance for 26 minutes.
• The House passed a motion under Rule 194 (1) to grant extension of 60 working days to Standing Committee on Water for presentation of its report regarding distribution of water to the province of Sindh in accordance with the Water Accord.
• Four other motions under Rule 194 (1) were deferred by the Chair.
• The House witnessed ministerial response on three points of public importance related to Ministries of CADD, Energy and Finance.
• The ministerial response on two other points was deferred on the request of relevant minister.
• The House referred a PkMAP lawmaker’s Privilege Motion against FC personnel to the relevant committee.
• Two lawmakers paid tributes to a veteran politician Rasool Bux Palejo who passed away last month after a protracted illness. They spoke for eight minutes.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Seventeen lawmakers raised 22 Points of Order to discuss political situation in the country consuming an hour and 58 minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1643 hours but it was found complete upon counting.
• An Independent lawmaker walked out of the House for 11 minutes when the Chair did not allow him to speak further on a point of order raised by him.
• PTI lawmaker also staged walkout of the House for seven minutes when one of their colleague was disallowed by the Chair to speak on a point of order.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on July 11, 2018 (Wednesday) at 1500 hours.

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.