ISLAMABAD, May 15, 2017: The Senate session was prorogued on Monday after passing six government bills and referring the Right of Access to Information Bill, 2017 to the standing committee, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are key observations of the proceedings during third and last sitting of the Senate’s 262nd session requisitioned by the opposition:
Members’ Participation
- The Senate met for three hours and 55 minutes.
- The sitting started three minutes behind the scheduled time of 1430 hours.
- The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman was not present.
- The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two and a half hours while the Leader of the Opposition was not present.
- Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
- Thirteen members (12%) were present at the outset and 16 (15%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PTI, JUI-F, PkMAP and NP attended the sitting.
- Three minority Senators attended the sitting.
Output
- The House passed the Companies Bill, 2017, the Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill, 2017, the Costs of Litigation Bill, 2017, the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill, 2017, the Explosive Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill, 2017. A PPPP lawmaker’s amendment to the Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was rejected with majority vote.
- Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage introduced the Right of Access to Information Bill, 2017. The bill was referred to relevant standing committee.
- The House granted extension to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice for presentation of its three reports.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Ten lawmakers took part in the discussion on Motion under Rule 218 regarding Governor Sindh’s political activities, agenda of a meeting of the Council of Common Interests and alleged misstatement by the Minister of State for Water and Power in the Senate about the supply of irrigation water to the Provinces. The discussion continued for an hour and 33 minutes and was concluded by the Minister for Law and Justice.
- Minister for States and Frontier Regions made statements before the House on Iran’s recent hostile statement, recent tension on Chamman Border, comments of Chinese Ambassador to India regarding CPEC, India’s case in International Court of Justice on sentence awarded to Kalbooshan Jhadav and upcoming visit of the Prime Minister to Arab Summit.
- A lawmaker spoke on a Point of Public Importance regarding resource allocation to the provinces.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers did not raise any Point of Order.
Transparency
- The 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.