ISLAMABAD, October 10, 2017: The Senate passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2017 on Tuesday and discussed the political as well as economic situation prevailing in the country, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the 268^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for four hours and 18 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 13 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1504 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for three hours and 49 minutes while the Deputy Chairman presided over the rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 40 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for four hours and seven minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI, PPPP, JUI-F, PML-N, PkMAP, MQM, ANP and PTI attended the sitting.
• As many as 10 (9% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 14 (13%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Three minority legislators also attended the proceedings.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law and Justice, the House passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
• The House granted 30-day extension to the Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research for presentation of its report on the issue of fertilizer movement in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House held a discussion on four Motions under Rule 218 regarding the growing conflict between different institutions of State, continuation in the office of Minister for Finance of a person indicted with grave financial crimes; increase in the price of petroleum products and sale of Jet Airbus at throwaway price by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The four motions were clubbed into one. As many as 21 lawmakers took part in the discussion consuming three hours and 12 minutes of the proceedings. The Ministers for Railways, Law & Justice, Parliamentary Affairs and Petroleum concluded the discussion consuming half an hour of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PTI lawmaker spoke on a Point of Personal Explanation for two 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