ISLAMABAD, September 11, 2017: The Senate granted a week’s extension to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice for presentation of its report on the Elections Bill, 2017 which was due on Monday (today), observes the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings of the first sitting of 267^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and two minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours and 19 minutes while rest of the proceedings was presided over by a member of Panel of Presiding Officers.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 32 minutes.
• The Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML-F, PkMAP, BNP-M, PPPP, MQM, PTI and ANP attended the sitting.
• Eighteen members (17% of the total membership) were present at the outset and 11 (10%) at the end of the proceedings.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• The House adopted a motion to grant seven-day extension to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice for presentation of its report on the Elections Bill, 2017.
• The House referred the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Insertion of new Article 95A) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Insertion of new Article 136A) to the relevant committees.
• The House rejected the motions seeking leave to introduce the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Article 91) and the Ratification of Foreign Agreements by Parliament Bill, 2017.
• The House deferred the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2017] (Amendment of sections 80 and 82) due to the absence of its mover.
• Tabled by Leader of the House, a resolution to condemn the killings of Rohingya Muslims was unanimously adopted by the House.
• The House passed three Private Members’ resolutions urging the government to promote the democratic norms and constitutionalism in the country, present all international conventions, treaties, covenants and commitments before the Senate for ratification and operate PIA flights from Quetta to various cities of the country.
• Three other resolutions on the agenda were deferred due to absence of the concerned lawmakers.
• The House did not take up a motion under Rule 115 seeking withdrawal of 16 Private Members’ bills due to absence of the mover of these bills.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House deferred eight motions under Rule 218 due to absence of concerned members or ministers.
• The Housed passed a motion under Rule 126 (7) to refer the Islamabad Compulsory Vaccination and Protection of Health Workers Bill, 2015 to the joint sitting of both Houses of the Parliament for its consideration.
• Leader of the House and PPPP Parliamentary Leader paid tributes to founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on his 69^th death anniversary and spoke for four minutes and ten minutes respectively.

Order and Institutionalization 

• Ten lawmakers spoke on Points of Public Importance for 51 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 proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted