President Dr Arif Alvi will convene a Senate session at 4 pm at the Parliament House today (Tuesday), which will be the first after the hotly debated Senate polls on March 3.
The session is likely to be a heated one between the government and the opposition parties, as the results of the Senate elections were announced amidst allegations of irregularities. In the polls, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerged the largest party in the upper house of Parliament, while the opposition alliance won the majority seats. The PTI also suffered a blow when its canidate for an important Islamabad seat, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, lost to the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)’s candidate Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani.
Polling took place on on 37 vacant seats of the 48 seats in the Senate, with 11 members from Punjab elected unopposed.
The results of the polls moved Prime Minister Imran Khan to seek a vote of confidence in the National Assembly on Saturday, in which he emerged victorious with 178 votes. The opposition had boycotted the vote.
The Senate session today will be the first of their 6-year term for the newly elected Senators.
Per the agenda of the, Chairman Functional Committee on Human Rights will present a report of the Committee on the Bill further to amend the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020.
Minister for Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh will present the report on the first Biannual Monitoring on the Implementation of NFC Award (July-December, 2019), as required under clause 3(B) of Article 160 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan before the Senate.
Additionally, Chairman Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony will present a report of the Committee on the bill to provide for the protection of rights of the religious minorities. The report of the committee on the bill to amend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, and a report on the bill to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, 189, will also be presented before the Senate.
