ISLAMABAD, March 2, 2016: The Senate on Wednesday debated public debt and economy of the country during the 3^rd sitting of its 126^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Minister for Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs briefed the House on public debt and economy while fourteen other lawmakers and Chairman Senate also spoke on it. The whole discussion consumed 61 percent (146 minutes) of the proceeding’s time.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for four hours and one minute.
• The sitting started against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The House had a prayer break for 14 minutes.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman was not present.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
• The Opposition Leader was present for three hours and 22 minutes.
• 25 (24%) Senators were present at the start and 24 (23%) at the time of adjournment.
• Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PPPP, PML-F, MQM, BNP-M, JUI-F and PTI were present.
• Two minority members were present.

Output

• The House witnessed introduction of three bills including the Offences in Respect of Banks (Special Courts) (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Equity Participation Fund (Repeal) Bill, 2016 and the Banks (Nationalization) (Amendment) Bill, 2016. All these bills were referred to relevant committee for further deliberations.
• The House adopted a resolution to pay tribute to Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy over winning Oscar Award for her documentary.
• The House witnessed presentation of two reports by Committee on Rules of  Procedure  and  Privileges and an  Annual  Report  for  the  year  2014-15  of  the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the State of Economy.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• An Adjournment Motion (AM) on agricultural issues was not admitted by the Chair for discussion for being in contravention with rules.
• The House passed a motion to extend the period for submission of report on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
• Another motion was passed by the House for electing 12 members in the Committee on Delegated Legislation.
• The House took up a Calling Attention Notices (CAN) about dilapidated condition of Federal Lodges Peshawar and non-payment of salaries to its staff on regular basis.  Minister for Housing responded to it.
• Another CAN about annual report of Transparency International was deferred on request of the mover.
• All 12 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up. In addition, the lawmakers raised 18 supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• One minute was consumed on a point of public importance during proceeding.

Transparency

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

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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