ISLAMABAD, May 13, 2016: The Senate transacted most of its business on Friday amid Opposition’s boycott, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for two hours and 37 minutes. .
• The sitting started one minute late against schedule time of 1030 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting and the Opposition Leader was present for 20 minutes.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• 18 (17%) senators were present at the start and 15 (14%) at the time of adjournment.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PML, JUI-F, PkMAP, BNP-M, MQM, BNP-A and NP were present.
• Three minority members attended the sitting.

Output

• Minister for Law and Justice introduced the Foreign Exchange Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which was referred to the relevant committee for further deliberations.
• The House witnessed presentation of report by Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges regarding a privilege motion submitted by an ANP lawmaker against behavior of Ex-Director General Trading Organization Islamabad.
• Another report of Standing Committee on Law and Justice was presented which was about affairs of Cooperative Housing Societies in Islamabad following a motion under Rule 218. Later, this report was also adopted by the House

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was regarding brutal killing of a young girl in Abbottabad following decision of Jirga while other notice was about non-declaration of results of Balochistan’s candidates against posts of Junior Engineer (BPS-17) in MEPCO.
• The House took 19 out of 33 starred questions appearing on the agenda. In addition, the lawmakers also asked 31 supplementary questions.
• The Chair deferred an Adjournment Motion (AM) about taking MQM workers into custody following written request of the mover. Another AM about execution of old aged leaders of Jamat-e-Islami Bangladesh was not admitted by the Chair for being in contravention with rules.
• A motion under Rule 157 (2) to discuss the Annual Reports of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for the years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 was moved but none of the lawmakers debated these reports. However, a motion was adopted to consider it as commenced agenda and debate would be likely made on it in the next sitting.

Order and Institutionalization

• Fifteen Points of Public Importance consumed 65 minutes (41%) of the sitting.
• The Opposition boycotted the sitting at 1140 hours against the absence of Prime Minister and did not return till adjournment of sitting at 1308 hours.

Transparency

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