ISLAMABAD, March 7: The second sitting of Senate’s 79^th session lasting two hours and five minutes on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution expressing deep concern over the issue of missing persons. The Upper House also passed the Industrial Relations Bill 2012. 

Commencing 45 minutes late, the Senate witnessed low attendance with 26 Senators present at the outset of the sitting while 30 were present at the end.

Six retiring Senators made farewell speeches.

The Annual Report on Observance and Implementation of the Principles of Policy in relation to the affairs of the Federation for the year 2010-11 was presented in the House.

The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting.  

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for two hours and five minutes.
• The sitting started at 1115 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1030 hours. The House proceedings started late by 45 minutes.
• The Chairman chaired the sitting.
• The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of the PMLN, PML, ANP, MQM, PKMAP, NP, JI and BNPA attended the sitting, while the leaders of PPPS, JWP and PMLF were absent.
• Twenty six Senators (26 % of total Membership) were present at the start, while 30 (30%) were present when the sitting was adjourned.
  

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Question Hour was not held during the sitting.
• The Upper House unanimously passed a resolution expressing deep concern over the issue of missing persons.
  

Output

• The Industrial Relations Bill 2012 was unanimously passed by the House.
• The Annual Report on Observance and Implementation of the Principles of Policy in relation to the affairs of the Federation for the year 2010-11 was presented in the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• Fifteen Points of Order consumed 27 minutes of the sitting time.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
  

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN