ISLAMABAD, November 3, 2017: The Senate on Friday passed the Marine Insurance Bill, 2017 and continued debate on powers of State Institutions, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and five minutes.
•  The sitting started at 1003 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Chairman did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 50 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 27 minutes.
• The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JUI-F, PML-F, MQM, BNP-M, PML-N and PPPP attended the sitting.
• As many as 13 (12% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 12 (11%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Two minority legislators also attended the proceedings.

Output

• Tabled by Minister for Commerce, the House passed the Marine Insurance Bill, 2017

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 16 out of 25 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings. The House referred one question to the relevant standing Committee for further consideration. The lawmakers also raised 33 supplementary questions during the Question Hour.
• Three adjournment motions appeared on the agenda of which first was withdrawn by the mover, second was deferred and other was disposed of by the Chair.
• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding preventive measures to control epidemic disease of HIV/AIDS. It was responded to by State Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination.
• Another CAN on the agenda was deferred on the request of the mover.
• The House adopted a motion under Rule 194 (1) to grant 60-day extension to Standing Committee on Law and Justice for presentation of its report on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017] (Amendment of Article 255).
• An adjournment motion regarding availability of extremist ideology and literature to the students was discussed. Seven lawmakers participated in debate for 54 minutes.
• The House continued discussion on the role of State institutions in the scheme of trichotomy of power. Four lawmakers participated in the discussion consuming 39 minutes.
• The House deferred the winding up of discussion on significance of the BRICS declaration with particular reference to China’s view point about Pakistan. The similar announcement of deferring this debate was made in the previous sitting but it was wrongly placed on today’s agenda.
• 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.

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