ISLAMABAD, January 24, 2018: The Senate on Wednesday passed one bill and recommended severe punishment for the alleged killer of seven-year old Kasur girl, Zainab who abducted, raped and murdered her a few days ago, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during third sitting of 272^nd session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for five hours and 12 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 37 minutes and 13 minutes due to joint photo session of Senators and prayer break respectively.
• The sitting started at 1504 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for three hours and 26 minutes while rests of the proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Chairman.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 58 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 31 minutes.
• As many as 16 (15%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 11 (10%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of MQM, PPPP, ANP, PTI, JUI-F, PML, PML-F, JI, BNP-M, NP and PML-N attended the sitting.
• Two minority lawmakers were present.

Output 

• The House passed the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad (Amendment) Bill, 2017. It was also endorsed by the Opposition lawmakers after the assurance of the government to allocate 200 Kanal of land for the university.
• Two bills including the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Pakistan Power and Infrastructure Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017 were introduced. Both bills were referred to the relevant committee for further consideration.
• Chairman, Standing Committee on Science and Technology presented report of the Committee on the National University of Technology Bill, 2017.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Seventeen lawmakers spoke regarding the arrest of Zainab’s killer for 81 minutes and demanded severe punishment to him.
• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regardingthe delay in issuance of annual second quarter development fund to FATA which was responded to by State Minister for Finance.
• The Chair deferred another CAN due to mover’s absence which was about the syllabus of MA Islamic Studies of Allama Iqbal Open University wherein a Tafseer written by a Qadiani is being taught for last eleven years.
• Ministers for Law and Justice, Petroleum, Power Division and Human Rights made reports on the recommendations of Standing Committees about issues related to them. However, Minister for Water Resources did not attend the sitting and agenda related to him remained unaddressed.
• State Minister for Maritime Affairs winded up debate on an adjournment motion regarding the commitments made by the Federal government to the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition without taking Parliament into confidence. He spoke for five minutes.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for discussion which was regarding recent increase in prices of petroleum products.
• The House took up seven out of 42 Starred Questions for answers during the Question Hour while one question was referred to the relevant committee. The lawmakers asked 23 supplementary questions as well.
• Five lawmakers spoke on as many points of public importance consuming 17 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• Four lawmakers spoke on points of order for seven 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