ISLAMABAD, February 16, 2017: The Senate Chairman expressed dissatisfaction over the briefing given by Minister of State for Interior on the law and order situation with particular reference to the recent wave of terrorism in the country, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

After 18 minutes of briefing, the Chairman expressed dissatisfaction over its content and directed the minister to brief the House in detail tomorrow. He said in-camera briefing may be held in case sensitive information is to be shared with the Parliament.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of Senate’s 259^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 51 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for an hour and 44 minutes while the rest of proceedings were presided over by a member of Panel of Presiding Officers.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire proceedings.
• Deputy Chairman, Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister were not present.
• Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, BNP-M, JUI-F, PPPP, MQM, PTI, PML-N, NP, ANP and PML attended the sitting.
• Nineteen (18% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present the start and 15 (14%) at the end of sitting.
• None of minority legislators attended the proceedings.

 Output

• The House witnessed introduction of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill, 2017 and forwarded it to the relevant committee.
• The House adopted two reports of various committees regarding placement of regulatory authorities under the line ministries and the privatization of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC).
• Chairman, Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research presented 13^th follow-up report of the committee on the proposed conversion of 1400 acres land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) / Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) into residential/commercial plots.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House deferred debate on bailout package for Pakistan Steel Mills following a motion under Rule 60 till the reply from the relevant minister.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was about the termination of services of 21 Trainee Apprentices (BPS-7) to be inducted in various trades after completing their trainings from Survey Training Institute, Islamabad while the other notice was regarding the non-payment of salaries to the Immigration and Passport officers posted in various Pakistani missions abroad.
• Sixteen out of 32 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up during the sitting. In addition, lawmakers asked 38 Supplementary Questions, as well.
• The Chair did not admit an Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding reservation of small provinces in the wake of upcoming population census in the country and referred the matter to the relevant committee.
• Two other AMs were withdrawn by their respective movers.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers discussed six Points of Public Importance consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.
• The opposition lawmakers walked out of the House for four minutes against the unsatisfactory reply of a question related to the Ministry of Water and Power.

 Transparency

• 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