• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, May 25, 2018:  The Senate on Friday passed a Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2018 clearing the way for the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Provincially Administered Tribal Area (PATA) with the respective Provinces, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the second sitting of the 278^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for five hours and 21 minutes while proceedings remained suspended for 63 minutes due to prayers break.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Chairman Senate presided over the entire sitting.
• The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for four hour and three minutes.
• The Opposition Leader attended the sitting for four hours and 21 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI, PML-N, BNP-M, MQM, JUI-F, JI, ANP, NP and PkMAP attended the sitting.

  Output

• Tabled by the Minister for Law and Justice, the House passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
• The amendment received 71 votes in its favor and five in its opposition. The bill provides for reducing the number of National Assembly seats from 342 to 336 and the number of Senate Seats from 104 to 96 while the number of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats will be increased from 124 to 145. However, the members of the National Assembly to be elected from FATA in General Election 2018 will continue till the dissolution of the Assembly. Similarly, the current members of the Senate from FATA shall continue till the expiry of their terms. Moreover, the elections on the 21 additional seats of KP Assembly will be held within one year after GE-2018.
• Minister for Law and Justice moved the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2018 which was also passed by the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Twelve lawmakers spoke on as many points of public importance for 35 minutes.
• Twenty-seven lawmakers expressed their views on the Constitutional Amendment Bill and spoke for 154 minutes.
• Two other lawmakers spoke on the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2018 for nine minutes while Minister for Parliamentary Affairs spoke appreciated the political maturity of parties and spoke for six minutes.
• A lawmaker spoke on a point of order for two minutes.

 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.