• Opposition’s bill on Panama Leaks Inquiry introduced

ISLAMABAD, September 26, 2016: The Senate witnessed introduction of 11 Private Members’ bills, including opposition’s bill on Panama Leaks Inquiry on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 253^rd session:

 Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for four hours and 40 minutes.
• The proceedings remained suspended for 19 minutes due to prayer break.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman was also present.
• The sitting started at 1504 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 17 minutes.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, PTI, MQM, PML-F, PkMAP, BNP-M and JI attended the sitting.
• Twenty-six members (25%) were present at the outset and 21 (20%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Three minority Senators attended the sitting.

 Output

• The House referred the Police Order (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the Islamabad Prohibition of Sheesha Smoking Bill, 2016, the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Insertion of new sections 320A and 337JJ, the Islamabad Restriction on Employment of Children Bill, 2016, the Islamabad Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment in section 364A), the Trafficking in Persons Bill, 2016, the Smuggling of Migrants Bill, 2016, the Panama Papers Inquiries Bill, 2016, the Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to relevant standing committees.
• The Panama Papers Inquiries Bill, 2016 was opposed by the treasury but the House voted in favour of introduction of the bill.
• A member of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization presented the reports of the committee on the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The House adopted the recommendations of the committee on these bills.
• Moved by Leader of the House, a supplementary resolution was adopted to condemn Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir.
• The House also passed three Private Member resolutions, condemning anti-Pakistan statements of Altaf Hussain and urging the government to construct low-cost housing units and stop brain drain from the country. Moreover, two resolutions were dropped due to the absence of relevant lawmakers.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House held three-hour long discussion on recent state of Pak-India relations. Twenty-three senators participated in the debate, which was concluded by the Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs.
• The House deferred discussion on a commenced motion regarding lowering water table in the country and admitted two motions under Rule 218 for discussion in the next sitting while two others were deferred on request of the movers.

 Order and Institutionalization 

• A lawmaker spoke on a Point of Order, consuming four minutes of the proceedings.

 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 proceeding conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted