ISLAMABAD, February 15, 2018: The Senate held discussion on an Adjournment Motion regarding increase in the prices of the petroleum products, observes the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fourth sitting of 273^rd session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and 11 minutes.
•  The sitting started at 1503 hours against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours and 11 minutes while rests of the proceedings were chaired by a member of Panel of Presiding Officers.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
•  The parliamentary leaders of MQM, PPPP, NP and PML-F attended the sitting.
• As many as eight lawmakers (7% of the total membership- 104) were present at the outset and 10 (9%) at the end of sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• Minister of State for Finance introduced the Corporate Rehabilitation Bill, 2018 which was forwarded to the relevant committee for further consideration.
• Chairman, Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented report on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017] (Amendment of Article 51).
• Moved by Chairman Functional Committee on Devolution, the House adopted the report on a Public Petition regarding “implementation of 18th Constitutional Amendment in the Higher Education Sector confining role of Federal HEC in formulation of standards and enhancing legitimate role of Provincial Governments especially in funding and implementation of Higher Education Policy”.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Chair admitted an Adjournment Motion (AM) for debate regarding Pakistan’s greenhouses emissions and its effects on the environment.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices about halting flight operations of PIA to Kuwait and Oman from February 1, 2018 and foreign media campaign regarding free Karachi.
• As many as nine lawmakers participated in a discussion on an AM regarding the increase in prices of petroleum products. The discussion continued for 43 minutes while State Minister for Maritime Affairs winded up debate during his 16 minutes speech.
• As many as five lawmakers spoke on Points of Public Importance consuming 13 minutes of the proceedings.
• State Minister for Maritime Affairs responded on a point of public importance regarding a motion to place Pakistan on a global terrorist financing list put forward by the United States of America and Britain and co-sponsored by France and Germany ahead of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on terrorist financing in Paris and its implications.
•  Ministers for Water Resources and Power Division informed about status of implementation on the recommendations contained in the reports of their relevant special committees.

Order and Institutionalization 

• The lawmakers did not raise any point of order.
• A PkMAP lawmaker staged a walkout from proceedings for eight minutes over unsatisfactory reply to a question.
• Entire Opposition staged a token walkout for two minutes against increase in prices of petroleum products.

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