Upper house performance: 88th Senate session marked by lack of quorum

According to FAFEN report, 43% of agenda items appearing on Orders of the Day were taken up.

ISLAMABAD:

The 88th session of the Senate was marked by ministerial absence, low attendance and persistent lack of quorum which adversely affected the performance of the upper house of parliament.

According to the findings of the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) report, only 43% of the agenda items appearing on the Orders of the Day were taken up.

Since the Senate Secretariat does not make the attendance record public, Fafen conducted a headcount of legislators at the beginning and end of each sitting, and documented the actual time spent on the floor of the House by the chairman, deputy chairman, leader of the house and the leader of the opposition.

The leader of the house and the leader of the opposition attended the entire session. The chairman chaired 59% of the session time, deputy chairman 22%, while the remaining time (8%), was presided over by Members of the Panel of Chairpersons.



The findings suggest that, on an average, 34 senators attended each of the seven sittings, a third of the cumulative 104-member house.

Furthermore, only six were present at the beginning and 19 at the end of each sitting. The lack of quorum, however, was not pointed out during the proceedings.

Only 13 out of the 30 agenda items appearing on the Orders of the Day were addressed during the session. Six Standing Committees’ reports were presented and two bills were introduced. Two calling attention notices were taken up and two resolutions adopted.

A contributing factor in low disposal of agenda was the absence of relevant ministers in the house. A calling attention notice, presented by senators of the Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement regarding the government’s failure to devise a formula for CNG prices could not be taken up since the adviser to the Prime Minister on Petroleum and Natural Resources was absent.



Similarly, ANP senators staged an 80-minute walkout during the third sitting over executive director of Karachi Electric Supply Company from a meeting of the Standing Committee on Water and Power.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2012.