ISLAMABAD, May 6, 2019: The Senate partially addressed the private members’ business on Monday amid a lack of quorum and the opposition’s walkout from the proceedings, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of 288^th session:

  Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 42 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was also present.
• The Leader of the House was present for an hour and 39 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and six minutes.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 13 lawmakers (12%) were present at the outset and 11 (10%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, JI and JUI-F attended the sitting.
• Two out of four minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House referred the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Substitution of section 489F of PPC and amendment of Schedule-II of Cr.PC) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Substitution of Article 84) to the relevant committee for further consideration. These bills were introduced by the private members b belonging to MQM, PML-N and PPPP.
• The House deferred the introduction of the Federal Legal Aid Bill, 2019.
• The House did not take up six resolutions appearing on the agenda.

• The House granted sixty days’ extension to the Senate Standing Committees on Housing & Works, and Defence for presentation of their reports on the matters referred to them.

• Moved by Leader of the House, the House unanimously adopted a motion giving effect to the amendments in the Rules and Regulations of the Senate Forum for Policy Research.

  Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House concluded the discussion on a Motion under Rule 218 about reforming the criminal justice system.
• The House discussed a JUI-F lawmaker’s motion regarding the country’s economic situation. Only the mover participated in the discussion consuming four minutes of the proceedings.
• The House dropped a motion under Rule 218 concerning infant mortality rate in the country due to absence of the movers while left two motions on dams construction and federal government’s plantation drive unaddressed.

Order and Institutionalization 

• As many as three lawmakers raised the Points of Order consuming seven minutes of the proceedings.
• The opposition walked out from the proceedings at 1459 hours when the Chair disallowed a discussion on recent increase in petroleum prices. They did not return to the House till its adjournment.
• An independent lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1506 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes. The quorum did not complete after the bells and the House was adjourned to meet again on May 7, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers is available on the website.
  

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This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are except