ISLAMABAD, April 25, 2019: The Senate took up its entire agenda on Thursday and unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution condemning incidents of terrorism in Sri Lanka, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 288^th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 31 minutes.
• The sitting started two minutes behind the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman also attended the sitting.
• The Leader of the House was present for an hour and 11 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for two hours and 17 minutes.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 18 lawmakers (17%) were present at the outset and 27 (26%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PTI, BNP, MQM and PkMAP attended the sitting.
• As many as three out of four minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The Minister for Housing and Works introduced the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority Bill, 2019. Three lawmakers including the Minister for Housing and Works debated the bill for five minutes. The House referred the bill to the relevant committee for consideration.
• Chairperson Standing Committee on Maritime Affairs presented the committee’s report on the review of budgetary allocations for financial year 2018-19 and proposed PSDP for financial year 2019-20 of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and its attached departments.
• On behalf of Chairman Standing Committee on Science and Technology, a member of the Committee presented three reports on the budgetary allocations and its utilization for financial year 2018-19 and PSDP proposals for the Ministry of Science and Technology for financial year 2019-20, the expo conference held at PCSIR Lahore, and a point of public importance about sea intrusion and erosion.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Interior presented four reports on the starred questions regarding missing persons, number of persons arrested on charges of involvement in terrorist activities in the country during the last five years, lodging of FIR against sitting Senator Shammim Afridi, and video of a child abuse in Waziristan.
• On behalf of the Chairman Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, a member of the Committee presented report of the Committee on points of public importance regarding problems being faced by advocates and politicians in opening their accounts in the banks and non-payment of dividends by the Companies listed with the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Petroleum presented report of the Committee on points of public importance regarding non-installation of 27 Air Mix Plants in Balochistan and excessive billing by the gas companies.
• Chairman Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination presented report of the Committee on a point of public importance regarding substandard medicines and fake degrees of Doctors.
• Chairman, Standing Committee on Aviation presented report of the Committee on a point of public regarding difficulties being faced by special persons travelling on PIA and Air Blue.
• Minister of State for Revenue presented the Second Quarterly Report for the year 2018-2019 of the Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Pakistan’s Economy.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 14 out of 37 Starred Questions of which one was referred to the relevant committee. Five questions lapsed due to the absence of the movers while 18 questions were not taken up. The lawmakers also asked 29 supplementary questions.
• The Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Revenue responded to two Calling Attention Notices regarding closure of 175 outlets of the Utility Stores Corporation and the tax shortfall being faced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

 Order and Institutionalization 

• A privilege motion of PPPP lawmaker against police officials was referred to the relevant committee.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on April 26, 2019 (Friday) at 1030 hours.

Transparency

• ‘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 proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted