ISLAMABAD, September 19, 2017: The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented its report on the Elections Bill 2017 in the House on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of the 267th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Senate met for four hours and 26 minutes.
- The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The proceedings remained suspended for 13 minutes due to prayer break.
- The Chairman presided over the sitting for three hours and 15 minutes while the Deputy Chairman chaired the rest of the proceedings.
- The Leader of the House and the Prime Minister did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 33 minutes.
- The parliamentary leaders of PML-F, MQM, PkMAP, JUI-F, BNP-M, PPPP and PML-N attended the sitting.
- As many as 12 (11% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 13 (12%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- Two minority legislators attended the sitting.
Output
- Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented the report of the committee on the Elections Bill, 2017 in the House.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on the discrepancy in the official statistics about population growth in Karachi as well as the fire incident in the Awami Markaz, Islamabad.
- The House held discussion on the third Quarterly Report for the year 2016-2017 of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of the Economy.
- The House discussed an Adjournment Motion regarding the Pak-Iran and TAPI gas pipeline projects and the future consequences of importing LNG from Qatar. Eight lawmakers took part in the discussion consuming 40 minutes of the proceedings while the State Minister for Petroleum wound up the debate in 28 minutes.
- A lawmaker took part in the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament consuming 10 minutes. The Minister for Climate Change concluded the discussion and spoke for 18 minutes.
- The relevant minister responded to six Points of Public Importance raised by the lawmakers.
- As many as seven out of 21 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings. In addition, lawmakers asked 21 supplementary questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- MQM lawmakers staged a walkout for two minutes over their reservations on the results of National Population and Household Census 2017.
- The lawmakers raised two Points of Public Importance consuming three minutes of the proceedings.
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