ISLAMABAD, November 5, 2021: The Senate sitting was adjourned on Friday amid lack of quorum and opposition’s walkout from the proceedings, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the first sitting of 315^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for an hour and 21 minutes.
• The sitting started at 10:34 am against the scheduled time of 10:30 am.
• The chairman presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy chairman was not present.
• The leader of the house attended the entire sitting.
• The leader of the opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 17 minutes.
• As many as 19 lawmakers (19%) were present at the outset and 16 (16%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PkMAP, PML and PTI attended the sitting.
• One minority lawmaker was present.

Output

• Chairman functional committee on government assurances presented report of the committee on a starred question regarding installation of ATM machines in the National Bank and Muslim Commercial Bank Branches in Tehsil Darband, District Mansehra.
• On behalf of chairman standing committee on finance, revenue and economic Affairs, a member of the committee presented report on the resolution recommending the government to give special tax exemptions to the small traders and low salaried class of Karachi and Hyderabad.
• On behalf of chairman standing committee on Interior, a member of the committee presented report on the Anti-terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
• The House did not take up legislative business and six reports of various standing committees.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up nine out of 20 starred questions while lawmakers asked 20 supplementary questions as well.
• A motion of thanks to the President for his address to parliament on September 13, 2021 was not considered.

 

Order and Institutionalization

• Seven lawmakers spoke on points of order for 27 minutes mainly related to increase in prices of petroleum products.
• The opposition walked out from the proceedings at 11:51 am against hike in prices of petroleum products and did not return to the House till adjournment of sitting.
• A PPPP lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 11:52 am that led to the ringing of bells for two minutes. The quorum did not complete after the bells and the House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, November 8, 2021 at 04:00 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