ISLAMABAD, November 2, 2017: The Senate debated the trichotomy of power among state institutions on Thursday and adopted a report of the Functional Committee on Human Rights on plights of the Rohingya Muslims, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are the key observations of the House proceedings during ninth sitting of the 269^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for four hours and 19 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 16 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1503 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Chairman presided over the sitting for first hour and 7 minutes while the Chairman presided over the rest of the proceedings.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 40 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for 52 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PPPP, MQM, JUI-F, PkMAP, BNP-M and NP attended the sitting.
• As many as 15 (14% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 11 (10%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Two minority legislators also attended the proceedings.

Output

• The House adopted a report of the Functional Committee on Human Rights on the issue of plight of Rohingya Muslims.
• The Chair directed the Minister for Law and Justice to report to the House within 30 days on the status of implementation on the Senate Resolution No. 305 regarding the enhancement of role and powers of the Senate of Pakistan.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as nine out of 21 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings. The House referred one question to the relevant standing committee for further discussion. The lawmakers also raised 22 supplementary questions during the Question Hour.
• The Chair admitted an Adjournment Motion seeking discussion on the interim award issued by London Court of International Arbitration on 8th June, 2017 in favour of nine IPPs directing Pakistan to immediately pay 10.977 billion rupees. The discussion will be held during next week.
• The House held a discussion on the role of State institutions in the scheme of trichotomy of power. Nine lawmakers participated in the discussion consuming two hours and five minutes.
• The Minister for Law and Justice concluded the discussion on the Annual Report for the year 2016- 2017 of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of the economy. The minister made an eight-minute long speech.
• The House deferred the winding up of discussion on significance of the BRICS declaration with particular reference to China’s view point about Pakistan and the diplomatic strategy of the
• Government in this regard.
• The House did not take up a motion to discuss the Annual Report of the National Economic Council for the Financial Year 2015-16 and an Adjournment Motion regarding water scarcity in the country.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding development of mechanism to control air pollution and delay in construction of Burma Pull on Lehtrar Road, Islamabad.

Order and Institutionalization

• The Senators did not raise any Point of Order.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers is available on the Senate 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