ISLAMABAD, July 31, 2012: Starting an hour and 15 minutes late, the third sitting of the Senate’s 84th session, which met for two hours and 13 minutes, continued to witness low attendance. Only nine Senators were present at the outset of the sitting while 18 were there at the adjournment.
Only the parliamentary leaders of the NP, JUIF and ANP attended the sitting.
Three Senators spoke on the presidential address for 40 minutes. Twenty-five Points of Order consumed 68 % of the sitting time.
Following are some key observations of the parliamentary business:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Senate met for two hours and 13 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1115 hours against the scheduled starting time of 1030 hours. The House proceedings started late by an hour and 15 minutes.
- The Chairman chaired the sitting. Deputy Chairman was also present.
- The Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition was present during the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of the NP, JUIF and ANP attended the sitting.
- Nine Senators (9% of total Membership) were present at the start, while 18 (17%) were present when the sitting was adjourned.
- One out of four Minority Members was present during the sitting.
- Two Senators applied for leave to be absent.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Three Senators spoke on the address of the President to both the House assembled together on 17th March 2012 for 40 minutes.
Output
- No bill appeared on the Orders of the Day.
Order and Institutionalization
- A total of 25 Points of Order consumed 90 minutes (68%) of the sitting time.
- There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts.
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