ISLAMABAD, December 19, 2018: The Senate referred Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on establishing secretariat for Council of Common Interests and natural gas crisis to the standing committees for deliberations, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings of the fourth sitting of 285^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for three hours and 56 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 17 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1404 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Deputy Chairman presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Chairman.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for three hours and 33 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition remained present for two hours and 27 minutes.
• The Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PML-N, PPPP, PTI, PML-F, JI and NP attended the proceedings.
• As many as 15 Senators (14%of the total membership) were present at the outset and 13 (12%) at the end of the sitting.
• As many as two out of four minority members attended the sitting.

Output

• On behalf of the Chairperson Committee on Delegated Legislation, a member of the committee presented its tenth quarterly report for the period from August to October, 2018.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up nine out of 31 starred questions addressed to the Ministry of Interior. The lawmakers asked 21 supplementary questions as well.
• The House referred two CANs regarding dedicated secretariat for the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and shortage of gas supply to Balochistan and Sindh to the relevant committees.
• The House passed granted extension to the Special Committee on Water Scarcity and Standing Committee on Communications for presentation of their reports.
• The House deferred the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament.

Order and Institutionalization 

• As many as 14 lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 47 minutes.
• An NP lawmaker moved a privilege motion about allegations of National Accountability Bureau against him. Seven lawmakers debated the motion for 19 minutes. The Chair reserved his ruling on the motion for next sitting.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 20, 2018 at 1430 hours.

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