ISLAMABAD, October 13, 2015: Senate passed the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and took up two calling attention notice (CANs) during the last sitting of 120th session on Tuesday, says the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.
The House witnessed low attendance as only eleven (10%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 28 (27%) at the time of adjournment.
Two CANs were taken up during the sitting. First CAN was regarding increase in public indebtedness to foreigners due to recent issuance of Euro Bonds at interest rate of 8.5% per annum while the other was related to removal of fifty transformers from several villages of Thatta.
The House had a debate on an adjournment motion (AM) regarding NFC distribution formula and report on second Biannual Monitoring on the Implementation of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award (January-June, 2014). Five lawmakers – two from PkMAP and one each from PPPP, PTI and BNP-M – took part in discussion for 24 minutes while Minister for Finance concluded the debate during his 15 minutes speech.
Another AM regarding reported change in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route was discussed by eleven lawmakers – three from PPPP, two from PkMAP, ANP and PTI, and one each from BNP-M and JUI-F – for 43 minutes. Minister for Planning, Development and Reform spoke on this issue for 32 minutes but the Opposition lawmakers termed his clarification unsatisfactory and walked out of the House for four minutes.
Two other AMs on failure of OGRA in fixing sale price of LNG and production of spurious and substandard medicines were not discussed in the House.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, during his 27 minutes speech, gave a policy statement in the House about efforts of the government to expatriate dead bodies of Pakistani pilgrims from Saudi Arabia after Mina incident. However, the Opposition lawmakers did not get satisfied over his statement and walked out of the house for three minutes.
Seven other lawmakers – PTI, ANP (2 each), PkMAP, PPPP (one each) and an Independent lawmaker– also spoke about Mina tragedy for 15 minutes.
Some key observations are as follows:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Senate met for four hours and 15 minutes
- The sitting started at 1002 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours
- Chairman presided over the entire sitting
- Deputy Chairman was also present
- The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting while the Opposition Leader was not present
- Prime Minister did not attend the sitting
- Eleven (10%) senators were present at the start and 28 (27%) at the time of adjournment
- Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP and BNP-M were present
- Two minority members were present
- Ten members applied for leave
Output
- Introduced by the Minister for Water and Power, the House passed the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Twelve out of the 30 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up. In addition, the lawmakers raised 18 supplementary questions.
- Two CANs were taken up during the sitting. First CAN was regarding increase in public indebtedness to foreigners due to recent issuance of Euro Bonds at interest rate of 8.5% per annum while the other was related to removal of fifty transformers from several villages of Thatta.
- The House had a debate on an AM regarding NFC distribution formula and report on second Biannual Monitoring on the Implementation of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award (January-June, 2014). Five lawmakers – two from PkMAP and one each from PPPP, PTI and BNP-M – took part in discussion for 24 minutes while Minister for Finance concluded the debate during his 15 minutes speech.
- Another AM regarding reported change in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route was discussed by eleven lawmakers – three from PPPP, two from PkMAP, ANP and PTI, and one each from BNP-M and JUI-F – for 43 minutes. Minister for Planning, Development and Reform spoke on this issue for 32 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- No point of order was raised during the sitting.
- Opposition lawmakers walked out of the House for four minutes against reported change in route of CPEC.
- Another walk out for three minutes was staged by Opposition lawmakers over unsatisfactory reply of the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs about expatriating dead bodies of Pakistani pilgrims from Saudi Arabia after Mina incident.
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 proceedings conducted by PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.
