ISLAMABAD, August 28, 2013: The Senate continued to debate the presidential address to the parliament’s joint session on June 10, 2013 during the eighth sitting of the 97th session on Wednesday.
Six Senators – three belonging to PPPP, two PML-N and one ANP – shared their views on the presidential address. Each senator spoke for approximately 10 minutes as stipulated by the Chair.
The Chairman presided over two hours and twenty five minutes of the sitting; the remaining proceedings were chaired by the Deputy Chairman. Both the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting.
The State Minister for Water and Power responded to a calling attention notice on increase in electricity prices. The notice was jointly tabled by PPPP and PML Senators.
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Senate met for three hours and 17 minutes. A 22-minute prayer break was observed during the proceedings.
- The sitting started at 1632 hours witnessing a 32-minute delay against the scheduled start time of 1600 hours.
- There were nine Senators present at the start of the proceedings, 17 at the end and a maximum 41 Members at a point during the sitting.
- The Chairman presided over two hours and twenty five minutes of the sitting while the remaining 30 minutes were chaired by the Deputy Chairman.
- Both the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting.
- The relevant minister for the Question Hour was present.
- Parliamentary leaders of MQM, PPPP, ANP, PML-N and JUIF were present while those of PML, PMLF and BNPA were not present.
- None of the Members applied for leave.
- Two minority Members attended the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- There were 14 Starred Questions on the agenda addressed to the Ministries of Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education; Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development and Information Technology and Telecommunication. Of them, seven were taken up. Additionally, 19 supplementary questions were asked.
- A Calling Attention Notice on increase in the prices of electricity was taken up by the House. The notice addressed to the ministry of Water and Power was jointly tabled by PPPP and PML Lawmakers.
- The House continued the debate on the presidential address to the parliament’s joint session on June 10, 2013. Six Senators – three belonging to PPPP, two PML-N and an ANP Senator -shared their views on the address for approximately ten minutes each.
Order and Institutionalization
- Lawmakers spoke on three points of order consuming 10 minutes.
- No protests, walkouts or boycotts were recorded.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and others.
- Information on Senators’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.
The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of the National Assembly proceedings conducted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI); a member organization of FAFEN