Senate Transacts Most of its Agenda

ISLAMABAD, July 19, 2016: The Senate transacted most of its agenda during the second sitting of its 250^th session on Tuesday, reports Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House business:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and 57 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman chaired the entire sitting while Deputy Chairman was also present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for three hours and 50 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 34 minutes.
•  Parliamentary leaders of ANP, PTI, PkMAP, MQM, PML, PML-N, JUI-F and JI attended the sitting.
• Twelve members (11% of the total membership – 104) were present at the outset and 19 members (18%) at the end of the sitting.
• Three minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• Introduced by State Minister for Water and Power, the House passed the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs introduced the State Life Insurance Corporation (Re-organization and Conversion) Bill, 2016 and the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Both bills were referred to the relevant standing committee for further deliberations.
• Chairman Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan presented report of the Committee on budgetary allocations and its utilization by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan for the financial year 2015-16.
• Chairman, Standing Committee on Communications presented special report of the Committee for the period from June, 2015 to till date.
• Draft Code of Conduct for Senators as finalized by the House Business Advisory Committee was laid in the House for information and feedback of Members before operationalization.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House passed two motions under Rule 194 (1) to extend the presentation period of reports on the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016 and non-settlement of long standing issue of peasants of Okara farms.
•  The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was about the jobs  security of teachers and employees of Colony Boards and T&T Colony Harripur while other was regarding obsolete flood warning radars in Pakistan  and non-implementation of Early Warning System Project.
• The House took 23 out of 32 starred questions appearing on the agenda. In addition, the lawmakers also asked 37 supplementary questions.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for discussion which was regarding aggression by the Indian Forces in occupied Kashmir which resulted into killing and injuries of innocent Kashmiris.
• Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs gave a statement in the House regarding remarks of US lawmakers about Pakistan. He spoke about it for seven minutes.

Order and Institutionalization 

• Seventeen Points of Public Importance consumed 105 minutes of the proceeding.

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

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