ISLAMABAD, May 11, 2018: The Senate on Friday passed one private member and 12 government bills, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the proceedings of 10^th sitting of 277^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 30 minutes.
• The sitting started one minute late against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
•  The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for two hour and 21 minutes.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, JUI-F, BNP-M, PTI and PkMAP were present.
• Fourteen members (13% of the total membership) were present at the outset and 21 (20%) at the end of sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• On behalf of Chairman Standing Committee on Petroleum, a member of the committee presented report on the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
• Moved by the Leader of the Opposition, the House passed a motion to withdraw three bills from the concerned Standing Committees as these Committees are not yet functional. These bills were the Federal Employees Benevolent Fund and Group Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2018; the Islamabad Healthcare Regulation Bill, 2018 and the Health Services Academy (Restructuring) Bill, 2018.
• The House passed twelve government bills which were the Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants Bill, 2018; the Institute for Art and Culture Bill, 2018; the Institute of Science and Technology Bahawalpur Bill, 2018; Sir Syed-CASE (Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering) Institute of Technology, Islamabad Bill 2018; the Establishment of the Federal Bank for Cooperatives and Regulation of Cooperative Banking (Repeal) Bill, 2018; the House Building Finance Corporation (Repeal) Bill, 2018; the Federal Employees Benevolent Fund and Group Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2018; the Islamabad Healthcare Regulation Bill, 2018; the Health Services Academy (Restructuring) Bill, 2018; the Women in Distress and Detention Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017; the Juvenile Justice System Bill, 2018 and the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection Bill, 2018.
• Moved by a PPPP lawmaker, the House passed the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 which suggested to enhance the fine and imprisonment of those criminals involved in child abuse cases.
• Minister for Human Rights presented the Federal Public Service Commission’s Annual Report for the year, 2016.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• Eleven lawmakers spoke on as many matters of public importance for 35 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization 

• A lawmaker spoke on a point of order for four 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