• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, November 19, 2021: The Senate passed four government bills on Friday amid opposition’s protest, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in the Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the seventh sitting of 315^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Senate met for two hours and 14 minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 10:30 am.
• The chairman presided over the entire sitting.
• The deputy chairman was also present.
• The leader of the house attended the entire sitting.
• The leader of the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• The Prime Minister was not present.
• As many as 21 lawmakers (21%) were present at the outset and 64 (64%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, PkMAP, PML, PML-F, BAP and JI attended the sitting.
• Three minority lawmaker were present.

 Output

• The House passed two government bills appearing on the agenda which were the Higher Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Higher Education Commission (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Four bills were referred to the relevant committees which included the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the National Commission on the Rights of Child (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Juvenile Justice System (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• The House considered supplementary agenda which included two bills including the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill, 2021 and the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
• Moved by Minister for Human Rights, the House passed the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill, 2021. Thirty-five (35) lawmakers voted in favor of the bill and 29 lawmakers opposed it.
• Minister for Law and Justice moved the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which was passed by House.
• On behalf of Chairman Committee on Delegated Legislation, a member of the committee presented first quarterly report of the Committee for the period from June to August 2021.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up 12 out of 53 starred questions while the lawmakers asked 31 supplementary questions.
• The House passed eight motions granting extension to various standing committees for presentation of reports on legislative proposals and matters referred to them.
• A motion of thanks to the President for his address to Parliament on September 13, 2021 was not taken up.
• Five lawmakers spoke on points of public importance for ten minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition staged protest for 36 minutes during the proceedings against the consideration of supplementary agenda.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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