ISLAMABAD, September 4, 2012: Starting 30 minutes behind schedule, the second sitting of Senate’s 85^th session witnessed walkouts by the opposition and a coalition partner of the government over increase in the prices of petroleum products.

The sitting was marked low attendance as only 11 Senators were present at the outset of the sitting while 14 were there when it was adjourned.

Eleven Senators – four PMLN, three ANP and one each of the PPPP, JUIF, MQM, and an Independent – spoke on the Motion under Rule 218 regarding the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) decision to review the prices of petroleum products on weekly basis and the recent increases made in the prices of POL products and CNG for an hour and 25 minutes.

The coalition partner ANP and the main opposition party PMLN separately staged walkouts over the increase in the prices of petroleum products. Each walkout lasted five minutes.

Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for two hours and 39 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1030 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The House proceedings started late by 30 minutes.
• The Chairman chaired the sitting. The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of the MQM, ANP, and NP attended the sitting.
• Eleven Senators (11% of total Membership) were present at the start, while 14 (13%) were present when the sitting was adjourned.
• Two Minority Senators were present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Twelve out of 36 questions on the agenda were taken up and responded to by the relevant Minister. Additionally, 19 supplementary questions were also asked.
• Eleven Members – four PMLN, three ANP and one each of the PPPP, JUIF, MQM, and an Independent – spoke on the Motion under Rule 218 regarding the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) decision to review the prices of petroleum products on weekly basis and the recent increases made in the prices of POL products and CNG for an hour and 25 minutes.

Output

• There was no bill on the agenda.

Order and Institutionalization

• No Point of Order was raised during the sitting time.

• The coalition partner ANP and the main opposition party PMLN separately staged walkouts over the increase in the prices of petroleum products. Each walkout lasted five minutes.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

 

 The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a member organization of FAFEN