ISLAMABAD, October 9, 2012: Starting an hour late, the second sitting of 86^th session on Tuesday witnessed relatively better attendance of Senators towards the end of the sitting – 40– than the previous sitting. However, only 16 were present at the outset of the sitting.

Six Points of Order consumed 31 minutes of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

Two Standing Committee Reports on Biannual Monitoring on the Implementation of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award for the period July-December 2011 and a Question of Privilege were presented in the House.

A Calling Attention Notice about increase in the prices of POL and CNG was taken up by the House. This CAN was sponsored by a female PMLN Senator along with a male MQM Senator.

The Prime Minister attended the sitting for an hour and 28 minutes. His address took 30 minutes of the sitting time.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for two hours and 48 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1100 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings started late by an hour.
• The Chairman chaired the sitting. The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition were present during the sitting.
• The Prime Minister attended the sitting for an hour and 28 minutes. His address took 30 minutes of the sitting time.
• The parliamentary leaders of MQM, PMLF, NP, JUIF and ANP attended the sitting.
• Sixteen Senators (16% of total Membership) were present at the start, while 40 (40%) were present when the sitting was adjourned.
• Two Minority Senators were present during the sitting.
• One Senator applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• A Calling Attention Notice about increase in the prices of POL and CNG was taken up by the House. This CAN was sponsored by a female PMLN Senator along with a male MQM Senator.

Output

• Two Standing Committee Reports on Biannual Monitoring on the Implementation of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award for the period July-December 2011 and a Question of Privilege were presented in the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six Points of Order consumed 31 minutes of the sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts.

Transparency

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

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