84 members voted in favour, while one went against the bill on reallocation of NA’s seats among federating units

ISLAMABAD, December 19, 2017: The Senate passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017 on Tuesday providing for reallocation of the National Assembly’s seats among the federating units, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during 7th sitting of the 271st session:

 Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 16 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 16 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1553 hours against the scheduled time of 1530 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman also attended the sitting.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 55 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 61 minutes.
• As many as 23 (22%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 14 (13%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI, PPPP, NP, PkMAP, PML-F, MQM, ANP, BNP-A, JI, JUI-F, PML-N and PML attended the sitting.
• All four minority lawmakers were present.

Output 

• The House passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017. As many as 84 lawmakers (81% of the total membership– 104) voted in favour of the bill while a PML Senator voted against it. The bill seeks reallocation of National Assembly’s seats among federating units.
• The House unanimously passed the COMSATS University Islamabad Bill, 2017.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Chair did not admit three adjournment motions appearing on the agenda for being contravention with rules.
• The House took a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding the issue of sugarcane growers. Minister for Commerce responded to it but the Chair directed the Senate Secretariat to send notice to the relevant ministry as Ministers for National Food Security and Commerce are putting responsibility on each other on the issue.
• Another CAN about selling out key assets of PIA was responded to by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.
• The House passed a motion under Rule 194 (1) to grant extension of 30-day to Standing Committee on Interior for presentation of report on the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
• Another  motion under Rule 194 (1) was also passed to grant extension of 60-day to Special Committee for presenting report on overall working of Sports Federations in Pakistan.
• Four lawmakers spoke on as many points of public importance consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• Minister for Petroleum Affairs on behalf of Minister for Energy responded to a point of public importance regarding low pressure of gas in various areas of the country.

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