Senate Passes the Illegal Dispossession (Amendment) Bill, 2017

ISLAMABAD, June 9, 2017: The Senate passed the Illegal Dispossession (Amendment) Bill, 2017 on Friday while 15 lawmakers raised Points of Public Importance consuming an hour of the proceedings, observes the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet.

Later, the session was prorogued.

Following are key observations of the proceedings of 11th (last) sitting of 263rd session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Senate met for two hours and five minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1040 hours against its scheduled time of 1030 hours.
  • A member of the Panel of Presiding Officers chaired the entire sitting as the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman were not present.
  • The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 10 minutes.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
  • Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PkMAP, MQM, JUI-F and BNP-M attended the sitting.
  • Eighteen members (17% of the total membership) were present at the outset and 24 (23%) at the end of sitting.
  • Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

  • Moved by Minister for Law and Justice, the House passed the Illegal Dispossession (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
  • The House referred the Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Bill, 2017 to the committees. These bills were also moved by the Minister for Law and Justice.
  • The House deferred the consideration of a report of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization regarding amnesty scheme for motor vehicles.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Fifteen lawmakers raised Points of Public Importance consuming an hour of the sitting.
  • The House addressed a Calling Attention Notice regarding the ranking of Pakistan by World Health Organization at fourth place amongst countries worst affected by air pollution.

Order and Institutionalization 

  • The lawmakers did not raise any point of order.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  •  The attendance of lawmakers is available on the website.

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