ISLAMABAD, July 29, 2020: The Senate transacted its entire agenda on Wednesday and referred two Financial Action Task Force (FATF) related bills to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice for deliberation, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the proceedings during the eighth sitting of the 300th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Senate met for an hour and 50 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1730 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours.
- The Chairman presided over the entire proceedings.
- The Deputy Chairman was also present.
- The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 33 minutes.
- The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and five minutes.
- The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 22 lawmakers (21%) were present at the outset and 19 (18%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, MQM, JI, ANP, JUI-F and PPPP attended the sitting.
- Two minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- Six Ordinances were laid in the House which were the International Court of Justice (Review and Re-consideration) Ordinance, 2020; the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; the Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; the Corporate Restructuring Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 and the Companies (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.
- Chairman Standing Committee on Communications presented report on the National Highways Safety (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
- Chairperson Standing Committee on Climate Change presented report on the issues related to water pollution, air pollution, municipal waste, hospital waste disposal, cleanliness, selection of garbage dumping sites and recycling of garbage in Islamabad.
- On behalf of Chairman Standing Committee on the Inter-Provincial Coordination, a member of the Committee presented report about the poor performance of Pakistan in sports like Hockey, Cricket, Squash, Snooker, Athletics and Boxing at international level.
- The Leader of the House tabled a motion to dispense the rules regarding question hour on July 29, 2020 which was passed by the House.
- Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs introduced two FATF related bills including the Anti-terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the United Nations Security Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020. Both bills appeared on `Orders of the Day’ as supplementary agenda and were referred to relevant Committee on Law and Justice. The meeting of the Committee would be held on July 30, 2020 (Thursday) for deliberation on these legislative proposals which have been passed by the National Assembly.
Order and Institutionalization
- Eleven lawmakers including the Minister for Law and Justice spoke on points of order for an hour and 34 minutes which were about promulgation of Presidential Ordinances and FATF related legislative proposals.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on July 30, 2020 (Thursday) at 1100 hours.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.
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