ISLAMABAD, November 13, 2012: Starting 44 minutes late, the fourth sitting of 87^th session on Tuesday witnessed low attendance of Senators. Only eight were present at the outset while 21 were there at the adjournment.

Additionally, the Deputy Chairman and the parliamentary leaders of PML, BNPA, ANP, and PMLF did not attend the sitting.

The sitting was also marked by protests by government coalition partners. ANP Senators staged a protest, and asked the Chairman to call the Prime Minister to brief the House on the situation of Karachi and Quetta. The protested ended when the House was informed that the Prime Minister will brief the House tomorrow (Wednesday).

MQM Senators also staged a walkout over target killings in Karachi. They went out of the House 1800 hours and did not come back to attend the remaining proceedings.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for an hour and 45 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1644 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1600 hours. The proceedings started late by 44 minutes.
• 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.
• Only the parliamentary leaders of MQM, NP and JUIF attended the sitting.
• Eight Senators were present at the start of the sitting while 21 were there at adjournment. A maximum of 33 Senators were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• Seven Senators applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• A Privilege Motion was raised by an ANP Senator on the registering of fake case on his son by the IG Punjab.
• Two out of seven questions appearing on the agenda were asked and responded to by the relevant ministry. Additionally, five supplementary questions were also asked.

Output

• A report of the Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production about the Airport Security Force (Amendment) Bill 2012 was presented in the House.

Order and Institutionalization

• Seven Points of Order consumed fifteen minutes of the sitting time.
• The sitting was also marked by protests by government coalition partners. ANP Senators staged a protest, and asked the Chairman to call the Prime Minister to brief the House on the situation of Karachi and Quetta. The protested ended when the House was informed that the Prime Minister will brief the House tomorrow (Wednesday).
• MQM Senators also staged a walkout over target killings in Karachi. They went out of the House 1800 hours and did not come back to attend the remaining proceedings.

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