• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, December 29, 2021: The Senate transacted 95 percent agenda on Wednesday and consumed more than one-third of the proceedings’ time in debate on matters of public importance, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the fourth and last sitting of 316th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and nine minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 10:30 am.
• The chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy chairman was not present.
• The leader of the house attended the entire sitting.
• The opposition leader attended the sitting for two hours and 29 minutes.
• The Prime Minister was not present.
• As many as 12 lawmakers (12%) were present at the outset and 22 (22%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PTI, PkMAP, JI, PML-F, BAP, ANP, PML and JUI-F attended the sitting.
• Three out of four minority lawmaker were present.

 Output

• The House passed three motions under Rule 194 (1) grating extension of sixty working days to standing committee on human rights for presentation of reports on as many legislative proposal.
• The House witnessed presentation of 12 reports of various standing committees as eight reports were on legislative proposals, three on started questions and one on a point of public importance.
• Advisor to Prime Minister on parliamentary affairs laid copy of the Paigham-ePakistan adopted and recommended for laying in the Parliament by the Council of Islamic Ideology. He also laid before the House rules under sub-section (3) of section 21 of the Pakistan Single Window Act, 2021.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up 12 out of 22 starred questions while lawmakers asked 38 supplementary questions.
• Minister of state for parliamentary affairs responded to a calling attention notices (CAN) about laying off the jobs of Railways patrollers.
• Another CAN regarding non-implementation of deletion program in automobile sector was deferred on the request of relevant minister.
• Nine lawmakers spoke on matters of public importance for an hour and seven minutes (35 percent of the proceedings’ time).

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition lawmakers walked out from the house for 11 minutes against not taking parliament into confidence over national security policy. Later, they also protested in the house on the same issue for six minutes.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

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