ISLAMABAD, October 9, 2015: The Senate passed the National University of Medical Sciences Bill, 2015 during 5^th sitting of the ongoing 120^th session on Friday, says the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

The Minister for Defence introduced the bill which was initially opposed by the opposition lawmakers, including PPPP, ANP and JUI-F, suggesting some amendments in the bill especially to bring this university under the purview of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

However, the minister assured the opposition lawmakers that the bill would be passed with amendments through support of treasury lawmakers if it was moved as a private bill. On the assurance of the minister, the House unanimously passed the bill. Nineteen lawmakers– PPPP (7), PML, ANP, PTI, PML-N and PkMAP (two each), BNP-M (one) and an Independent lawmaker –discussed it for 46 minutes.

The House witnessed low attendance as only seven (6%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 35 (34%) at the time of adjournment.

The House had a debate on an adjournment motion (AM) regarding dispatching of incorrect bills to consumers for 38 minutes which was participated by five PPPP lawmakers and one each of ANP, PML and PTI.

The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was about non-issuance of allotment letters of plots in Bhara Kahu Housing Scheme to the employees of constitutional bodies while the other was regarding failure of PEMRA to ban insulting remarks against political personalities being broadcast on different TV channels.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for three hours and 11 minutes
• The sitting started at 1002 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours
• Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours and 17 minutes while rest of the proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Chairman
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader attended the entire sitting
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting
• Seven (6%) senators were present at the start and 35 (34%) at the time of adjournment
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, PML, PML-F, PML-N, BNP-M, PkMAP and JUI-F were present
• Two minority members were present
• Seven members applied for leave

Output

•  Introduced by the Minister for Defence, the House passed the National University of Medical Sciences Bill, 2015.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Eight out of the 21 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up. In addition, the lawmakers raised 24 supplementary questions.
• The House had a debate on an AM regarding dispatching of incorrect bills to consumers for 38 minutes which was participated by five PPPP lawmakers and one each of ANP, PML and PTI.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was regarding non-issuance of allotment letters of plots in Bhara Kahu Housing Scheme to the employees of constitutional bodies while the other was about failure of PEMRA to ban insulting remarks against political personalities being broadcast on different TV channels.

Order and Institutionalization

•  Four points of order consumed nine minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

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

To download the factsheet, click here

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.