ISLAMABAD, January 24, 2022: The Senate referred five bills to relevant committees and adopted two resolutions on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 25 minutes.
• The sitting started at 02:35 pm against the scheduled time of 02:30 pm.
• 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 25 lawmakers (25%) were present at the outset and 31 (31%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PTI, JI, PkMAP, NP, JUI-F, PML and BAP attended the sitting.
• All four minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House referred five bills to relevant committees for further consideration. These bills were the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Allied Health Professionals Council Bill, 2022; the National Metrology Institute of Pakistan Bill, 2022; the Pakistan Nursing Council (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Islamabad Healthcare Facilities Management Authority Bill, 2022.
• Two bills were deferred due to the absence of relevant lawmakers which included the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
• The House adopted two resolutions urging the federal government for steps to construct plastic roads under the domain of National Highways and grant two years age relaxation in all federal government and public sector jobs. These resolutions were sponsored by lawmakers belonging to PTI and JUI-F.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Fifteen lawmakers discussed a motion under rule 218 for an hour and 52 minutes which was about increasing incidents of terrorism in the country.
• Four lawmakers spoke on points of public importance for 12 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The entire opposition staged a token walkout from the proceedings against remarks of the leader of the house against it.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday, January 25, 2022 at 11:00 am.

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