ISLAMABAD, February 12, 2016: The Senate took up entire agenda on Orders of the Day during last sitting of its 124^th session on Friday and concluded debate on issues of petroleum and gas consumers, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for two hours and 18 minutes. .
• The sitting started at its scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader attended the entire sitting.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• Ten (9%) senators were present at the start and 45 (44%) at the time of adjournment.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, BNP-M, JI, NP and PML were present.
• All four minority members were present.

Output

• The House witnessed the presentation of four reports of the standing committees on legislative proposals including the Electoral Rolls (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the Delimitation of Constituencies (Amendment) Bill, 2015; the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Publication of Laws of Pakistan Bill, 2015.
• The Chairman Standing Committee on Communications presented the report of the Committee on starred question No. 119 asked by Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi on December 22,

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House concluded the debate on two clubbed motions under Rule 218 about economic policy of the government. Eight lawmakers including Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources spoke on it for 85 minutes. The motions were jointly sponsored by 33 lawmakers of PPPP,PML, BNP-A and PTI and an Independent lawmaker.
• The Chair gave a ruling about non-convening the meeting of Council of Common Interest.
• The Chair announced to reject the request of federal government to include the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (conversion) Bill, 2016 on the agenda as it was not submitted as per rules.

Order and Institutionalization

• Lawmaker spoke on six points of public importance that consumed 15 minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.

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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.