ISLAMABAD, January 28, 2022: The Senate passed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Amendment Bill, 2022 by a margin of one vote and rejected opposition’s amendments on it, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet on Friday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the eleventh sitting of 317th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for an hour and 44 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 10:30 am.
• The chairman presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy chairman was also present.
• The leader of the house attended the entire sitting.
• The leader of the opposition was not present.
• The Prime Minister was not present.
• As many as 33 lawmakers (33%) were present at the outset and 85 (85%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, JI, BAP, PTI, ANP, PML-F, JUI-F, NP and PML attended the sitting.
• All four minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House passed the National Metrology Institute of Pakistan Bill, 2022 after presentation of standing committee’s report on it.
• Moved by Minister for finance, the House passed a motion to present the SBP (Amendment) Bill, 2022. As many as 43 votes were polled in motion’s favor while the same number opposed it. After tie, the Senate Chairman voted in favor of the motion and the bill was moved for consideration in the House.
• The House passed the SBP (Amendment) Bill as 43 votes were cast in favor of the bill and 42 against it. Earlier, all amendments of the opposition on this legislative proposal were rejected through voice voting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up all five starred questions while lawmakers asked 13 supplementary questions.
• The House did not take up motion of thanks to the President for his address to both Houses of Parliament assembled together on September 13, 2021.

Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers spoke on points of order for 17 minutes.
• The opposition protested during the proceedings demanding the Chair for consideration of agenda according to sequence on `Orders of the Day’ and against delay in taking up the SBP (Amendment) Bill when the treasury’s numerical strength was less in the House. The Chair suspended the proceedings for 28 minutes amid this protest of the opposition.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, January 31, 2022 at 03:30 pm.

Transparency.

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted