During his one-year in the Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani did pretty well as the House legislated, debated and streamlined issues of national and public interest during parliamentary year 2018-19. The House did legislation for protection of basic rights of children, women, workers, migrants, transgender persons and weaker segments of society. It brought together parliamentary leadership for promoting peace and development at the forum of Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA).
The APA meetings were consciously held at Gwadar to establish that Gwadar soon would become the hub of trade and economic activities for the entire region, which would not only leave a positive impact on South Asia but also on the whole region.
A parliamentary caucus on climate change was constituted to create climate literacy amongst parliamentarian, civil society and other influential spheres to make collective efforts in countering climate change.
To address the growing concerns amongst the citizenry, a special committee on circular debt was constituted by the Senate to examine all individual components of the circular debt and measures taken by the government to reduce the same.
The committee conducted deliberation with power sector stakeholders and engaged distribution companies (DISCO) to identify loss-making zones/feeders/grid stations, and impact of law and order situation and theft on DISCOs.
After almost ten years, the Special Committee on Kashmir became the parliamentary committee consisting of members of both Houses of the Parliament as result of positive response of the speaker National Assembly on the request of the chairman Senate.
The Senate met in 13 sessions in the parliamentary year with 111 working days and 78 actual sittings with an average attendance of 64.46 percent. Twenty-eight private members' bills and 15 government bills and seven ordinances were introduced in the Senate during the parliamentary year 2018-19.
The Senate took the credit of passage of the first bill of the incumbent government i.e. the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2018, to provide constitution of more benches to the Election Commission to effectively dispose of elections related complaints/petitions/appeals.
The legislation enacted during this parliamentary year focused on strengthening the social contract between the legislators and the constituents.
The legislation done by the Senate aimed at creating an inclusive and equitable society which can be classified into three broad categories - mainstreaming of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA), right based legislation and laws addressing issues of accessibility.
A total of 3,681 starred questions were received, of which 3,301 were admitted, 111 were disallowed, 269 lapsed and eight were withdrawn by members. In addition to starred questions, a total of 47 un-starred questions were received, 41 were admitted, three were disallowed, three lapsed and six were withdrawn by the members.
A total of 322 resolutions were received by the secretariat and of them 266 were held as admissible while 29 were held as inadmissible on technical grounds.
Thirty-one resolutions were passed by the House, whereas six were dropped in the House due to absence of the members concerned. A total of 432 motions under rule 218 were received, of which 379 were admitted and 16 were disallowed while 37 lapsed. Eleven were discussed in the House, three were dropped in the House and four were referred to the committees.
The Senate discussed motions on various subjects including taxes levied on petroleum product, deteriorating healthcare system, recent depreciation of rupee by five percent in addition to the sharp depreciation in December, current political situation, low gas pressure in winter season in various areas, energy crisis, prevailing law and order situation, loans from foreign sources, foreign policy with regard to conflict in the Middle East, price hike in gas and electricity and the sit-ins organised by religious parties, violation of human rights in Indian Occupied Kashmir by the Indian security forces, ecological environmental changes arising out of climate change and other overall impact on the country, recent report of State Bank of Pakistan which predicted further inflation, etc.
Fourteen adjournment motions were discussed. The Secretariat received 219 calling attention notices on various issues, of which 168 calling attention notices were set down in the agenda, and statements on 51 calling attention notices were made by the ministers concerned.
During the parliamentary year 2018-19, the committees made a number of decisions and recommendations. Some of the main milestones achieved in this regard are revision of textile policy, steps towards prevention of cyber crime, ease of registration of non-customs paid vehicles in the areas of FATA, PATA and Malakand Division, a mechanism for taking growers on board while imposing withholding taxes on agricultural sector, fairness in Pakistan Television, measures towards rehabilitation of drug addicts, project of innovation in Pakistan, conversion towards solar/green energy, issue of salaries and allowances of the employees of NICL, establishment of NHA office in Quetta, and quality certification mandatory for imported items.
The Senate has been actively engaged in promoting bilateral and multilateral parliamentary relations through exchange of delegations and participation in international parliamentary events. These incoming/outgoing visits give an opportunity to Pakistan to share its point of view on bilateral, regional and international issues in a more candid yet formal manner.
Pakistan Senate has developed strong parliamentary relations in past few years. Delegations from the Senate have paid goodwill visits to almost all the important countries of Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, Latin and North Americas.
Parliamentary delegations from a large number of foreign countries also reciprocated visits to Pakistan. Senators also accompany the President and the Prime Minister on their state/official visits to different countries.
A total of 411 public petitions were received, of which 86 petitions were referred to Senate committees. Seventy-seven petitions have so far been disposed of and nine are still with the committees to be finalised.
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