ISLAMABAD, March 17, 2017: The Senate on Friday passed one bill and discussed the issue of extending the period of military courts for another two years, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The House held discussion on the extension of military courts, as the Senate Chairman, Leader of the Opposition and Ministers for Finance and Law expressed their views on it for 15 minutes.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 10^th sitting of the 260^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 39 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for an hour and 34 minutes while the rest of the proceedings were chaired by a Member of Panel of Presiding Officers.
• Deputy Chairman and Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition attended the entire sitting.
• Parliamentary leaders of PTI, JUI-F, PPPP, ANP and PML-F attended the sitting.
• Thirteen (12% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 20 (19%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• Three minority legislators attended the proceedings.

 Output

• The House passed the Pakistan Climate Change Bill, 2017 aimed at meeting Pakistan’s obligations under international conventions for climate change and to address the effects of climate change.
• The House adopted report of the Standing Committee on Finance on a Point of Public Importance relating to the discrepancies in population census forms issued by the Statistics Division.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House discussed an Adjournment Motion (AM) on the significant issues pertaining to the census exercise being conducted in the country. Eleven lawmakers and Minister for Law spoke on it for 29 minutes. However, the motion was admitted for further discussion.
• Another AM regarding the consequences of a statement made by the officials of Planning Commission was not admitted.
• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs). The first CAN was about the air pollution caused by Steel Mills in the Federal Capital while the other notice was regarding non-completion of electrification schemes in some villages of Sindh.
• Twenty-five out of 36 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda were taken up during the sitting. In addition, lawmakers asked 32 Supplementary Questions.

 Order and Institutionalization

• Two Points of Public Importance were discussed for four 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 proceedings conducted by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). Errors and omissions are excepted