ISLAMABAD, February 17, 2017: The Senate held an in-camera briefing on Friday by State Minister for Interior on recent wave of terrorism in the country, says Free and Fair Election Network.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during fifth sitting of Senate’s 259^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for four hours and 10 minutes.
• The sitting started one minute behind the scheduled time of 1030 hours.
• The House observed prayer break for 35 minutes.
• The sitting remained suspended for eight minutes to pay respect to victims of Sehwan Shairf terrorist attack.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours and 22 minutes while the rest of proceedings were presided over by a member of Panel of Presiding Officers.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
• The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate did not attend the sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, ANP, JUI-F, PkMAP, BNP-M and PML-N attended the sitting.
• Fourteen (13% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present the start.
• One minority legislator attended the proceedings.

 Output

• The House passed the Hindu Marriage Bill, 2016 and referred the Companies Bill, 2017, the Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill, 2017 to the relevant committees following their introduction.

• The House witnessed presentation of six reports by various Committees of the Senate.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Minister of State for Interior and Narcotics Control briefed the House in-camera on recent terrorist attacks in the country. The briefing continued for an hour and 31 minutes.
• The House granted extension for presentation of committee report on the Protection of Economic Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs regarding transfer of Pakistan International Airline Corporation (PIAC) employees to Pakistan Airways Limited (PAL) and non-completion of Takht Bhai Fly Over project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
• Nine out of 36 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up during the sitting. In addition, lawmakers asked 27 Supplementary Questions.
• Three adjournment motions were held inadmissible for being in contravention of the rules.

 Order and Institutionalization

• One Point of Public Importance was discussed for one minute.
• The opposition lawmakers staged a walkout for three minutes against lack of interest by cabinet members in proceedings of the House. .

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