Upper house: Protests, walkouts consume one-third of Senate’s session

More than half the agenda items left unaddressed.

Protests and walkouts by opposition groups and their allies, and low attendance of lawmakers marked the Senate’s 81st session, leaving 54% of the agenda items unaddressed, according to a Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) preliminary report released on Friday.

The session lasted 23 hours and 10 minutes for nine sittings from April 30 to May 11. Each sitting started with an average delay of 41 minutes.

Protests, walkouts

Protests and walkouts disrupted the proceedings and consumed almost one-third, or 34%, of the session time.

In all nine sittings, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senators staged walkouts over the government’s refusal to implement the Supreme Court verdict in the contempt case against the prime minister. On three occasions, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) protested the federal government’s interference in provincial matters, drone attacks and reopening of Nato supply routes.

Meanwhile, the government’s allies in the upper house also staged walkouts.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party walked out of the house over the issue of provincial autonomy while the PML-Quaid protested over power outages and ministerial absence. During the eighth sitting, PML-Q even threatened to quit the coalition if the energy crisis was not solved.

Attendance

Since the Senate Secretariat does not make the attendance record public, FAFEN conducts a headcount of members at the beginning and end of each sitting and documents the actual time spent on the floor of the house by chairman, deputy chairman, leader of the house and the leader of the opposition.

On average, only 10 senators were present at the outset and 23 at the end of each sitting.

The leader of the house attended all the sittings and the leader of the opposition was present during seven sittings for 35% of the session time. A total of 102 minutes, or 7% of the session time, were consumed by breaks.

Although the quorum was visibly lacking at various stages of the session, it was pointed out once by an ANP senator during the seventh sitting. The chair rung the bells for five minutes, but due to persistent lack of quorum the proceedings remained suspended for 52 minutes.

Content

Though the session was called to debate the president’s address to the joint session of parliament in March, only 202 minutes, out of a total 1,390 minutes, were spent on the debate.

Twenty points of order consumed 11% of the total session time but none attracted the chair’s formal ruling. Unless the chair gives a formal ruling on a point of order, it does not lead to any output.

The upper house passed the Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Bill 2012, while four private members’ bills were introduced and sent to their respective standing committees.

Thirty-eight out of 91 starred questions (requiring oral replies) appearing on the agenda were taken up by the House. On average, four questions were asked per sitting. Additionally, 64 supplementary questions were raised.

Three out of 12 resolutions appearing on the agenda were adopted by the House. Two resolutions were adopted to condemn the burning of Quran by an American pastor, and another to condemn the bomb blast near ANP leader Amjal Khattak’s mausoleum. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2012.