ISLAMABAD, March 3, 2016: The Senate on Thursday debated reconstitution of Administrative Board, Councils, Bodies constituted under various Acts of Parliament or established by an executive order, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Chairman Senate and sixteen lawmakers participated in the discussion for 96 minutes after reply submitted by the Cabinet Division to the report of the Senate Special Committee on Devolution Process, containing the direction to reconstitute all policy and Administrative Board, Councils, Bodies constituted under various Acts of Parliament or established by an executive order for giving equal representation to provinces in them.
The Chairman Senate gave a ruling after this debate and referred the matter to Privilege Committee with recommendation to summon Joint Secretary Cabinet Division over his reply and submit report on it within three weeks.
Some key observations are as follows:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Senate met for three hours and 39 minutes.
- The sitting started against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours and 31 minutes while the remaining proceeding was chaired by a member of Panel of Presiding Officer.
- Deputy Chairman was not present.
- Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
- The Opposition Leader was present for three hours and 14 minutes.
- Ten (9%) Senators were present at the start and 28 (27%) at the time of adjournment.
- Parliamentary leaders of PML-F, MQM, PPPP, JUI-F, PkMAP and NP were present.
- One minority member was present.
Output
- Introduced by the Minister for Human Rights, the House passed the Futures Market Bill, 2015 in 34 minutes.
- The House witnessed presentation of report by Functional Committee on Human Rights on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
- Four other reports of Standing Committees were presented which were regarding repairing and maintenance of PIA Aero planes, mobile night packages, qualification as well as professional experience of members in Capital Development Authority (CDA) and number of inquiries about financial and administrative embezzlements in CDA.
- Chairman Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research presented third follow up report of the Committee regarding proposed conversion of 1400 acres land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) into residential/commercial plot.
- Minister for Human Rights presented the Annual Reports of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for the Financial Year 2013-2014 and Financial Year 2014-2015.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up a Calling Attention Notices (CAN) about Indian propaganda for dropping of proposed deal of sale of JF-17 Air crafts by Pakistan to Sri Lanka. Another CAN on the agenda was not taken up which was about European Union’s recent report commenting on various issues of human rights in Pakistan.
- An Adjournment Motion was deferred on the request of the mover which was about behavior of the staff of the Pakistani Foreign Missions working in developing countries while dealing with the overseas Pakistanis.
- Twelve out of 34 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up. In addition, the lawmakers raised 28 supplementary questions.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
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