The 99th session of the Senate was marked by the passage of a private member's bill and the adoption of four resolutions as senators displayed low interest in the proceedings in terms of their attendance and participation, leaving behind two-fifth of the agenda on the Orders of the Day unaddressed. The objectives of the private member's bill - the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2013 - moved by an ANP lawmaker, state that “the civil servant holding dual nationality or citizenship of any foreign country should not be entitled for promotion to posts in Basic Pay Scale 20 or equivalent and above, to ensure the loyalty of senior bureaucrats “holding influential and sensitive posts”.
The Senate held 10 sittings, starting from October 28 to November 8, 2013, which lasted 14 hours and 22 minutes. On average, each sitting spanned an hour and 26 minutes, with a delay of 72 minutes. With the exception of MQM, the opposition benches boycotted the session over the alleged misconduct of the Federal Minister for Interior. The opposition alleged that during one of the question hours, the Interior Minister had provided inaccurate information to the House on the killings in terrorists' attacks and urged him to withdraw his statement.
Senate's 97th session was marked by the introduction of six private members' bills, three of them seeking amendments in the constitution. The three bills sought amendments in articles 1, 51 and 106 and 140A of the constitution to empower the parliament to create new provinces, give workers representation in the national and provincial assemblies, and to provide for specified time in the constitution for holding local government elections.
ISLAMABAD, June 22, 2013: Forty-six Senators took part in the debate on the federal budget during the 95th session of the Upper House, says the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its report released on Saturday. Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics, Planning and Development presented before the House 113 recommendations, which were unanimously adopted in the last sitting of the session.
The session from 18 February to 14 March 2013 lasted 36 hours and 14 minutes. On average, each of the 17 sittings lasted two hours and seven minutes, starting 49 minutes late. Overall the upper house passed 15 bills including four private members' bills. A private member's bill introduced by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate “to consolidate the law to regulate the acceptance and utilization of foreign contribution” by NGOs “for any activities detrimental to the national interest” was referred to the Standing Committee on Finance.
