ISLAMABAD, January 28, 2020: The Senate transacted most of its agenda on Tuesday and adopted a report of the Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication regarding pension issue of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) ex-employees, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 15^th sitting of the 295^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 49 minutes.
• The sitting started at its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Chairman presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Chairman.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for two hours and three minutes.
• As many as 15 lawmakers (14%) were present at the outset and 13 (12%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, PML-N, PkMAP, BNP-M, JI and ANP attended the sitting.
• As many as two out of four minority lawmakers were present.

 Output

• The House granted 60-day extension to the Standing Committees on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination for presentation of its report on a starred question regarding construction of Shifa International Hospital on charity land.
• Convener Senate Implementation Committee presented two reports on committee’s recommendations for visa issue of Pakistanis in European countries and implementation status of the report of Petroleum committee which was adopted by the House on November 08, 2017.
• A PPPP lawmaker presented a report of the Standing Committee on Communications regarding revenue collected from toll plazas on National Highways and Motorways from 2013 to 2019.
• Chairperson, Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication presented the committees’ report on issue of payment of increase in pension of the retired employees of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). Three lawmakers including the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs debated the report for 18 minutes.
• The discussion on the Annual Report of the National Commission on the Status of Women for the year 2017 was not concluded due to absence of the Minister for Human Rights.

 Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up 13 out of 33 starred questions while lawmakers asked 27 supplementary questions as well.
• A PML-N lawmaker spoke for five minutes on the motion of thanks expressing gratitude to the President of Pakistan for his address to the Parliament on September 12, 2019.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers spoke on points of order for ten minutes.
• The entire opposition staged a token walkout against the absence of concerned ministers during the question hour.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 31, 2020 (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 proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted