ISLAMABAD, June 6, 2017: The Senate on Tuesday continued discussion on the Federal Budget 2017-18 and debated the incident of firing by Afghan Security Forces on the census team at Chaman border, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

 Following are key observations of the proceedings of 8^th sitting of 263^rd session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and 46 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The House had a prayer break of 28 minutes.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House was present for two hours and eight minutes while the Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 36 minutes.
• Parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PPPP, PML-F, PML-N, PTI, JUI-F, MQM, JI, ANP and PML attended the sitting.
• Twenty-four senators (23% of the total membership) were present at the outset and 15 (14%) at the end of sitting.
• Three minority lawmakers also attended the sitting.

Output

• The House witnessed the presentation of four reports of the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges as well as two reports of the Standing Committee on Defence.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Five senators took part in the debate on the Finance Bill 2017, consuming 58 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House discussed an Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding firing incident at the Chaman border where census team was operating inside the residential areas of Pakistan and came under attack by the Afghan Security Forces. Eleven lawmakers debated on the subject for 81 minutes.
• Two AMs, despite being on the agenda, were not admitted for discussion while another AM was withdrawn by the mover himself.
• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding the under-utilization of power by the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as has been allocated by the National Power Control Centre (NPCC). The notice was responded to by the State Minister for Water and Power.
• On behalf of Minister for Defence, the State Minister for Water and Power responded to another CAN regarding the killing of innocent Pakistanis in the recent outbreak of violent firing on the Line of Control by Indian occupied forces. However, the Chair kept the notice pending due to incomplete information and asked the minister to submit complete information during the ongoing session.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of the lawmakers as well as the Daily Journal of the Proceedings are 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