Senate of Pakistan met on average for 3 days in a week during the 317th session of the Upper House. According to the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency (PILDAT), all 7 days of the week were counted towards its tally of meeting days.
During the 45-day long session, the house actually met for just 19 days which translates into 42% of the total days counted towards meeting days on paper, the PILDAT handout further said. The 317th session of the Senate began on Tuesday, January 4 and was prorogued after 45 days on Thursday, February 17, 2022, the statement firther said.
Since a break of two days is also counted towards the meeting days, the Senate had been meeting for a day or two and then going for a break for 2 days, it said. According to the PILDAT statement, it is needless to mention that senators are paid their daily allowance for all the days counted towards the meeting days. The Session met for 47 hours and 56 minutes with an average time of 2 hours and 31 minutes per sitting. If we divide the total working hours over the entire 30 days counted towards meeting days, the average number of working hours per day turn out to be just an hour.
27.43% agenda items on average were left over in 19 sittings held during 317th session. On the average, the Senate could dispose off 72.57% of its agenda items during the session. During the 19 sittings of the session, maximum agenda items disposed off were 100% on January 7, January 11, January 18, February 4 and February 14 while the maximum agenda items left over were 88.89% on January 14. In 5 (26.32%) out of 19 sittings of the Senate session, quorum was pointed out and 4 (21.05%) sittings were adjourned though on average 63 (63%) Senators marked attendance in the session. Quorum was pointed out 6 times throughout the session, it said.
Average attendance of Senators during 317th session was recorded at 63% (63 Senators present per sitting on the average).Senator Mushtaq Ahmed (KP, JIP) was the most vocal Senator during 317th session with a recorded talk time of 2 hours and 41 minutes. Leader of the House in the Senate, Senator Dr. Shahzad Waseem (Punjab, PTI) spoke for 2 hours and 18 minutes, followed by Senator Sherry Rehman (Sindh, PPPP) who spoke for 1 hour and 52 minutes during the session.
