ISLAMABAD, July 21 2016: The Senate passed four government bills and adopted a resolution to condemn terrorist attack in Madina Munawara during 4th sitting of its 250th session on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House business:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for five hours and 14 minutes.
• The sitting started one minute late against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The House had a prayer break for 16 minutes.
• The Chairman chaired the sitting for four hours and seven minute while rest of the proceeding was presided over by the Deputy Chairman.
• The Leader of the House attended the sitting for two hours and six minutes while the Leader of the Opposition was present for two hours and 50 minutes.
• Parliamentary leaders of MQM, NP, PkMAP, PML-N, JI, JUI-F and PML attended the sitting.
• Twelve members (11% of the total membership – 104) were present at the outset and 15 members (14%) at the end of the sitting.
• Three minority Senators attended the sitting.

Output

• The Senate passed four bills including the Financial  Institutions  (Recovery  of  Finances)  (Amendment)  Bill,  2016;  the Credit Bureaus (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• The House adopted a resolution to condemn terrorist attack in Madina Munawara.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) regarding figure issued by Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2014-15 about child labour in country which was responded to by Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination.
• Another CAN regarding reported disparity between the quota of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in total power generated in the country and actual supply of electricity was deferred on request of the mover.
• The House discussed an adjournment motion (AM) regarding aggression by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. Seventeen lawmakers and Chairman Senate spoke on it for two hours and four minutes while Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs gave a statement on it for ten minutes.
• An AM about US pressure on Pakistan to shut down some parts of its atomic program was withdrawn by the mover while two other AMs were dropped due to absence of movers.
• The House took 12 out of 20 starred questions appearing on the agenda. In addition, the lawmakers also asked 35 supplementary questions.

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