ISLAMABAD, March 3, 2016: The Senate on Thursday debated reconstitution of   Administrative  Board,  Councils,  Bodies  constituted  under various  Acts  of  Parliament  or  established  by  an  executive  order, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Chairman Senate and sixteen lawmakers participated in the discussion for 96 minutes after reply submitted by the Cabinet Division to the report of the Senate Special Committee on Devolution  Process, containing  the  direction to reconstitute  all  policy  and  Administrative  Board,  Councils,  Bodies  constituted  under various  Acts  of  Parliament  or  established  by  an  executive  order for giving  equal  representation  to provinces in them.

The Chairman Senate gave a ruling after this debate and referred the matter to Privilege Committee with recommendation to summon Joint Secretary Cabinet Division over his reply and submit report on it within three weeks.

Some key observations are as follows:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for three hours and 39 minutes.
• The sitting started against its scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for two hours and 31 minutes while the remaining proceeding was chaired by a member of Panel of Presiding Officer.
• Deputy Chairman was not present.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting.
• The Opposition Leader was present for three hours and 14 minutes.
• Ten (9%) Senators were present at the start and 28 (27%) at the time of adjournment.
• Parliamentary leaders of PML-F, MQM, PPPP, JUI-F, PkMAP and NP were present.
• One minority member was present.

Output

• Introduced by the Minister for Human Rights, the House passed the Futures Market Bill, 2015 in 34 minutes.
• The House witnessed presentation of report by Functional Committee on Human Rights on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
• Four other reports of Standing Committees regarding repairing and maintenance of PIA Aero planes, mobile night packages, qualification as well as professional experience of members in Capital Development Authority (CDA) and number of inquiries about financial and administrative embezzlements in CDA.
• Chairman   Standing Committee  on  National  Food  Security  and  Research  presented third follow  up report of the Committee regarding  proposed conversion  of  1400  acres  land  of National  Agricultural  Research  Centre (NARC) by  the  Capital  Development Authority (CDA) into residential/commercial plot.
• Minister for Human Rights presented the Annual Reports of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for the Financial Year 2013-2014 and Financial Year 2014-2015.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up a Calling Attention Notices (CAN) about Indian propaganda for dropping of proposed deal of sale of JF-17 Air crafts by Pakistan to Sri Lanka. Another CAN on the agenda was not taken up which was about European Union’s recent report commenting on various issues of human rights in Pakistan.
• An Adjournment Motion was deferred on the request of the mover which was about  behavior  of  the  staff  of  the Pakistani  Foreign  Missions  working  in  developing  countries  while dealing  with  the  overseas  Pakistanis.
• Twelve out of 34 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up. In addition, the lawmakers raised 28 supplementary questions.

Transparency

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

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