ISLAMABAD, September 16, 2015: Starting at the scheduled time, the third sitting of Senate’s ongoing 119th session was adjourned due to lack of quorum after meeting for two hours and 50 minutes, says Free and Fair Election Network in its daily factsheet.

A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1745 hours, following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. However, quorum was found to be incomplete after the count, following which the sitting was adjourned to meet again on Thursday.

The House witnessed low attendance with only 18 (17%) legislators present at the start and 24 (23%) at the time of adjournment. The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 56 minutes while the Opposition Leader was present for the entire sitting.

The House witnessed introduction of the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2015 which was referred to relevant committee for further deliberations.

The Chair admitted an adjournment motion regarding failure of OGRA in fixing import and sale price of LNG.

Chairman, Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented reports regarding the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2015 for Omission of Clause (2) of Article 248 and Substitution of Clause (1) of Article 140A.

The House took up two calling attention notices (CANs). The first CAN was regarding death of two persons due to a ruptured High Power Voltage (11000 KV) transmission line near Dhoro Naaro, Sindh and the other was about non-completion of Khanpur Water Supply Project for last sixteen years.

The House passed a motion to extend the time period for presentation of Standing Committee on Water and Power’s report upto 30 days which was regarding demand numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 9 and 12 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government. It also passed a motion to extend time period of Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat’s report till October 15, 2015 which was about amendment in the “Islamabad Capital Territory Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2013.”

Three periodical reports were presented on matters referred by the House including enhancement of security for all installations, irregularities in the affairs of Langland Public School in Chitral and restriction on the entry of Chinese nationality holders in Gawadar without NOC.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for two hours and 50 minutes
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1500 hours
• Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours while a member of panel of chairpersons chaired the rest of the proceedings
• The Deputy Chairman was not present
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for an hour and 56 minutes.
• The Opposition Leader attended the entire sitting
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting
• Eighteen (17%) senators were present at the start and 24 (23%) at the time of adjournment
• Parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PML-F, BNP-M, PkMAP and PML were present
• Three minority members were present
• Three members applied for leave

Output

• The House witnessed introduction of the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2015 which was referred to the relevant committee for further deliberations.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two CANs regarding death electrocution of two persons in remote area of Sindh on August 4, 2015 and non-completion of Khanpur Water Supply Project for last sixteen years.
• The Chair admitted an adjournment motion for debate regarding failure of OGRA in fixing sale and import price of LNG and government liability to pay huge amount to terminal operator.
• Seven out of 15 starred questions appearing on the agenda were answered by the relevant departments while the Senators also raised 16 supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 15 POs which took up 29% (49 minutes) of the proceedings’ time.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1745 hours, following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. However, quorum was found to be incomplete after the count, following which the sitting was adjourned to meet again on Thursday.
• PTI lawmakers walked out of the House for eight minutes to protest unsatisfactory reply to a question related to ODGCL.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public

To download the factsheet, click here

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Senate proceedings conducted by PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.