ISLAMABAD, January 13, 2017: The Senate discussed the issues of infant deaths and construction of cadet colleges in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) besides kidnappings of human rights activists, observes Free and Fair Election Network on Friday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fifth sitting of Senate’s 258^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for an hour and 46 minutes.
• The sitting started one minutes behind the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman was also present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for 58 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was not present.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PTI, PkMAP, PPPP, PML-F and BNP-M attended the proceedings.
• Eleven members (10%) were present at the outset and 23 (22%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• The House granted sixty days’ and thirty days’ extension to the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges and Special Committee on the implementation of the report of the Committee on the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Bill, 2015 respectively for presentation of their reports.
• Minister for Law and Justice presented the First Quarterly Report of State Bank of Pakistan on the state of economy for the year 2016-2017 and the Progress Report of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the period 2014-2016

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CAN) regarding death of five infants in Khyber Agency after having polio drops and stoppage of construction work of four Cadet Colleges in Tribal Agencies.

• All 18 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up during the sitting. In addition, lawmakers asked 30 Supplementary Questions.
• The Minister for Law and Justice made a statement for two minutes on the kidnapping of fifth human rights activist in eight days.
• Chairman informed the House about implementation by the Provincial Government of Sindh on Senate’s report regarding anti-democracy contents in curriculum.

Order and Institutionalization 

• The lawmakers spoke on 11 Points of Public Importance consuming 29 minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

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

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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.