ISLAMABAD, April 20, 2017: The Senate discussed the issues of reassembling of imported auto-parts and decision of an arbitration forum on Tethyan Company’s claims against Government of Pakistan, observes Free and Fair Election Network on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during ninth sitting of Senate’s 261^st session:

 Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 40 minutes.
• The sitting started on its scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Chairman was also present.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and 25 minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was not present.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• Seventeen members (16%) were present at the outset and 12 (11%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-N, MQM, JUI-F, JI, BNP-M, ANP, PkMAP and PML-F attended the sitting.
• Two minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• A member of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented report of the Committee on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Fourth Schedule).
• The House granted extension to the Committees on Cabinet Secretariat; Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony and Law and Justice for presentation of their reports on matters referred to them.
• The House considered and adopted the report of Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization on Starred Question No. 79 on the import of auto-parts in the shape of scrap from Japan and re-assembling them into cars. Four lawmakers took part in the discussion for eight minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices regarding Indian brutalities in Occupied Kashmir and high electricity tariff for new power projects.
• The House admitted an Adjournment Motion on the disappearance of retired army officer in Nepal for discussion on Friday.
• The relevant lawmakers withdrew a Point of Public Importance regarding the mismanagement in the affairs of PMDC.
• Six lawmakers participated in the discussion on an Adjournment Motion regarding the implications of the decision of an Arbitration Tribunal of the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on the arbitration claims filed by Tethyan Copper Company against Pakistan in relation to the denial of a mining lease for the Reko Diq project. The discussion continued for 27 minutes and was concluded by the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources who committed in-camera briefing on the issue on May 8, 2017.
• Six lawmakers spoke on Points of Public Importance consuming 13 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization 

• A JUI-F lawmaker staged a walkout for 34 minutes for not being allowed to raise a supplementary question.
• Five lawmakers belonging to PkMAP, PPPP, ANP and PTI staged a walkout for 19 minutes over unsatisfactory response to a question.
• A JUI-F lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1130 hours which was found complete after bells were rung for three minutes.

Transparency

• The 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.