Senate refers four bills to committees, discusses Finance Bill

ISLAMABAD, June 18, 2021: The Senate continued debate on Finance Bill, 2021 and referred four government bills to the relevant committees for further consideration, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 4th sitting of 312th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for two hours and 52 minutes.
  • The sitting started 10:03 am pm against the scheduled time of 10:00 am.
  • The chairman presided over the proceedings for an hour and 27 minutes while the remaining sitting was chaired by the deputy chairman.
  • The leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
  • The leader of the opposition was present for an hour and 30 minutes.
  • As many as 32 lawmakers (32 percent) were present at the outset and 14 (14 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, JI, PML-N, MQMP, ANP, PML-Q and JUI attended the sitting.
  • Two out of four minority lawmakers were also present.

Output

  • Chairman Standing Committee on Human Rights presented report on the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2021 and the Islamabad Capital Territory Senior Citizens Bill, 2021.
  • The House witnessed introduction of four government bills, which were the Federal Medical Teaching Institute Bill, 2021: the National Institute of Health (Re-organization) Bill, 2021; the Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2021. All these bills were referred to the relevant committees for further consideration.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Six lawmakers participated in the budget discussion consuming two hour and 15 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, June 21, 2021 at 04:00 pm.

Transparency

  • ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
  • The attendance of lawmakers is available on Senate website.

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