ISLAMABAD: The 317th session of the Senate began on Tuesday, January 4 and was prorogued after 45 days on Thursday, February 17, 2022. 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. In general, the Senate met for 3 days in a week while all 7 days of the week were counted towards its tally of meeting days. During the 45 days long session, the house actually met for just 19 days which translates into 42% of the total days counted towards meeting days on paper . 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 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.
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. Senator Faisal Javed (KP, PTI) spoke for 1 hour and 28 minutes while Senator Mian Raza Rabbani (Sindh, PPPP) spoke for 1 hour and 14 minutes.
15 bills were passed by the Senate during 317th session including the highly contentious State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2022 which the opposition termed as a surrender to IMF. The bill was passed by a margin of only 1 vote and the amendments proposed by the opposition were rejected. 43 Senators voted in favour of the bill while 42 opposed.
Government introduced 7 bills while Private Members introduced 27 bills during the session. No Ordinance was extended during the session while Four (4) Ordinances were laid in the House during the session, two (2) of which were laid on Tuesday, January 18 while 2 ordinances were laid on Friday, January 21.