ISLAMABAD, March 6, 2017: The Senate adopted four Private Members’ resolutions and witnessed introduction of six bills on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of Senate proceedings during 2nd sitting of its 260th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Senate met for four hours and 57 minutes.
- The sitting began one minute behind the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The House observed the prayer break of 17 minutes.
- The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
- Deputy Chairman did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 19 minutes.
- The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
- Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PkMAP, MQM, NP, PML-F, PTI, PML, ANP and JUI-F attended the sitting.
- Twenty (19% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 17 (16%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- All four minority legislators attended the proceedings.
Output
- The House adopted four resolutions; two of them condemned the attacks on mosques in Canada and the United States, while the other two resolutions were about the registration of minors in domestic employment and conveying concerns of the people to the US Ambassador not to use the phrase “Islamic Terrorism”.
- Another resolution regarding establishment of more hospitals in Islamabad was deferred.
- The House witnessed presentation of three reports on the Public Private Partnership Authority Bill, 2016; the Pakistan National Accreditation Council Bill, 2016 and the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology Bill, 2016.
- The report on the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was deferred till the opinion of the Minister for Law on it.
- The House witnessed presentation of six bills, including the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Section 323); the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of sections 273, 274 and 275); the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Article 101); the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of sections 80 and 82); the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Article 37) and the Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Bill, 2017. All these bills were referred to the relevant committees for further deliberation.
- Two bills – the Islamabad National Hospital Bill, 2017 and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Article 70) – were deferred.
- Two more bills appearing on the agenda under Rule 100 were deferred on the request of the mover. These bills included the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Omission of Article 182), the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment of Article 209) and two third majority in the House required to pass any constitutional amendment bill.
- Seven bills appearing on the agenda for presentation under Rule 100 read with rule 166(3) were deferred till the ruling of the Chairman. These bills included the Trafficking in Persons Bill, 2016; the Smuggling of Migrants Bill, 2016; the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Insertion of new sections 320A and 337JJ); the Islamabad Restriction on Employment of Children Bill, 2016; the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment in section 364A); the Police Order (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Islamabad Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
- Two bills – the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2016; The Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University Islamabad (Amendment) Bill, 2016 – were not taken up as their respective movers did not submit motions for their consideration.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House passed three motions under Rule 194 (1) to grant extension to as many committees for presentation of their reports.
- The House discussed four motions under Rule 218 to make Islamabad clean and beautiful, rectify dilapidated condition of roads in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), reasons for decline in the exports and to eradicate increasing number of quacks practicing in ICT. A motion about disappearance and re-appearance of some bloggers in Islamabad and other parts of the country was deferred.
- The House took up a Calling Attention Notice regarding blocking of CNICs of Pakistani nationals belonging to FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which is creating a sense of discrimination amongst the people of those areas.
- The House discussed reported actions taken by the Government of the Punjab and the Punjab Police against the Pakhtun Community. Chairman Senate and 12 lawmakers, including State Minister for Interior, spoke on it for an hour and 19 minutes.
Order and Institutionalization
- One Point of Public Importance was discussed for two minutes.
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.