ISLAMABAD, May 20, 2016: The Senate on Friday passed a private member’s bill for the rehabilitation and welfare of the un-attended orphan children during 9^th (last) sitting of its 248^th Session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Senate met for two hours and seven minutes. .
• The sitting started ten minutes late against schedule time of 1000 hours.
• The Chairman presided over the sitting for an hour and 59 minutes while rest of proceeding was chaired by a member of Panel of Presiding Officers.
• The Deputy Chairman was not present.
• The Leader of the House attended the entire sitting and the Opposition Leader was present for 20 minutes.
• Prime Minister did not attend the sitting.
• 26 (25%) Senators were present at the start and 40 (39%) at the time of adjournment.
• Parliamentary leaders of JUI-F, PkMAP, PML-F, NP and JI were present.
• Three minority members attended the sitting.

Output

• Tabled by Leader of the Opposition, the House adopted a supplementary resolution to protect the rights of orphan and abandoned children.
• The House passed a private member’s bill – the Un-attended Orphans (Rehabilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2016 – for the rehabilitation and welfare of the un-attended orphan children.
• Another bill – the Constitution (Twenty-second Amendment) Bill, 2016 – was deferred on the request of mover.
• The House witnessed presentation of report by Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research about conversion of 1400 acres land of National  Agricultural  Research  Centre (NARC) by the  Capital  Development Authority (CDA) into residential/commercial plots.
• The House adopted the report of the Committee of Whole to consider mode of elections of Members of Senate, pros and cons of single transferable voting system, alternates and poll  reforms.

Representation and Responsiveness

• A Calling Attention Notice (CAN) about  the  wastage  of taxpayers’ money by the  Federal Government for the personal  campaign in electronic/print media of the Prime Minister with respect to Panama Leaks was dropped due to movers’ absence.
• Another CAN on the agenda was deferred due to ministerial absence regarding the non-functioning  of training center for  Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Quetta established  under  the Prime Minister’s Youth Program.
• All 24 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken by the House as four questions of an Independent lawmaker were deferred on mover’s request. In addition, the lawmakers also asked 44 supplementary questions.
• The House passed a motion to extend the presentation period of report in response to starred question regarding recent transfer of political  agents  in  various  agencies  of  FATA.
• The Chair rejected an Adjournment Motion (AM) for being provincial subject. This AM was regarding the implications of the incident of custodial death of a political activist in Karachi at the hands of the LEAs.
• The House passed a motion for representation of Senators in the Parliamentary Committee being constituted to finalize TORs of Panama Leaks probe. The Chairman Raza Rabbani left the House at 1209 hours for not taking him into confidence before presenting such motion.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The sitting remained suspended for 11 minutes as no one form the treasury benches responded to an AM on the agenda despite the Chair’s directions.

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