• Session prorogued

ISLAMABAD, June 25, 2021: The Senate witnessed introduction of 18 government bills on Friday and was prorogued after concluding debate on the Finance Bill, 2021, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 8th (last) sitting of 312th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and two minutes.
• The sitting started at the scheduled time of 10:30 am.
• The chairman presided over the entire proceedings.
• The deputy chairman was also present.
• The leaders of the House and the opposition attended the entire sitting.
• As many as 35 lawmakers (35 percent) were present at the outset and 48 (48 percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PTI, PML-N, PkMAP and MQMP attended the sitting.
• One out of four minority lawmakers was present.

 Output

• Chairmen Standing Committees on Power and Interior presented reports on the Regulation of  Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Islamabad Rent Restriction (Amendment) Bill, 2020, respectively.
• The House witnessed introduction of seventeen government bills which were referred to the relevant committees. These bill were the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Hyderabad Institute for Technical and Management Sciences Bill 2021; the National College of Arts Institute Bill, 2021; the Pakistan Academy of Letters (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Loans for Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Purposes (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Financial Institutions (Secured Transactions) (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the SBP Banking Services Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Corporate Restructuring Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Protection of Communal Properties of Minorities (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Islamabad Capital Territory Charities Registration, Regulation and Facilitation Bill, 2021; the COVID-19 (Prevention of Hoarding) Bill, 2021; the Port Qasim Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021;the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Gwadar Port Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021and the Maritime Security Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2021
• Introduced by a PPPP lawmaker, the House referred – a private member bill – the Al-Karam International Institute Bill, 2021 to the relevant committee.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Six lawmakers participated in the budget discussion consuming an hour and 15 minutes of the proceedings. Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs concluded the debate and spoke for five minutes.
• Three lawmakers spoke on points of order for seven minutes.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of Senators is available on Senate website.

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