Senate Takes Up Mardan Lynching, Dawn Leaks Issues

ISLAMABAD, May 11, 2017: The Senate held discussion on the lynching of university student Mashal Khan and Dawn Leaks, besides taking up the issue of barring a political party from using Press Information Department for holding press conference, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during first sitting of the Senate’s 262^nd session requisitioned by the opposition:

 Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and 37 minutes.
• The sitting started three minutes behind the scheduled time of 1530 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for three hours and 12 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• Twenty-eight members (27%) were present at the outset and 18 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PTI, MQM, JUI-F, BNP-M, PkMAP, PML-F and NP attended the sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• A PML-N lawmaker presented report of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization on the Companies Bill, 2017. The House granted the committee 60-day extension for presentation of the report on the Corporate Rehabilitation Bill, 2017.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented report of the committee on the Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill, 2017.
• The House did not take up a government bill listed on the Orders of the Day.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Nineteen lawmakers took part in the discussion on Motion under Rule 218 regarding lynching of Mashal Khan and the rise of such incidents in the country. The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs concluded the discussion that continued for an hour and 51 minutes.
• Seven lawmakers participated in the discussion on Motion under Rule 218 regarding barring leaders of a political party from holding press conference at Press Information Department. The discussion continued for 25 minutes and was concluded by the Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage.
• Nine lawmakers participated in the discussion on Motion under Rule 218 regarding Dawn Leaks. The discussion consumed 54 minutes of the proceedings and would continue in the next sitting.

Order and Institutionalization 

• The lawmakers spoke on two Points of Order consuming six 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.

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.

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