ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Senate will not be conducting any legislative business on Monday, which is a private member’s day and which is otherwise considered a hectic day for the members to introduce legislation.

The 14-point agenda issued for the Monday’s session which is available with Dawn includes seven resolutions, five motions and one presentation of a report and there is no private member bill on it.

It is significant to note that a majority of the 54 senators elected in March has so far brought no legislation in the last six months, which is evident from the previous agendas of the upper house. MQM’s Nasreen Jalil and Farogh Naseem are the only newcomers who have so far moved private member bills jointly during the session on July 9.

There were three private members’ bills on the agenda for the April 30 session and these bills had been submitted by PPP’s Raza Rabbani and Abdul Haseeb Khan and Tahir Mashhadi of the MQM; all the three had been in the Senate from the previous term. The agenda for the private member’s day on May 7 carried only one bill introduced by ANP’s Haji Adeel, also a member of the Senate since 2009.

Under the rules, there is no concept of a government or opposition representatives on a private member’s day and every member can introduce his or her bill for legislation in personal capacity. Under normal conditions, the agendas for private member’s day — both in the National Assembly and the Senate — are dominated by the bills, but the agendas of the last six months of the upper house clearly show lack of interest amongst the members in carrying out legislation work.

The Senate may take up on Monday an important resolution, already moved by PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar “calling upon the government to sign and ratify the International Convention for Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances” and another resolution submitted by ANP’s Shahi Syed “recommending the government” to take “effective steps to de-weaponise the city of Karachi in view of prevailing law and order situation in the city”.

Mr Babar through his resolution wants the upper house to urge the government of his own party to immediately ratify the convention which is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations and aimed at preventing forced disappearances as defined in the international law as a crime against humanity.

The convention against enforced disappearances drafted on the lines of CAT was adopted by the UN General Assembly through a resolution on January 12, 2007 and opened for signatures at a ceremony held in France in February 2007. Though, the convention has been signed by 90 countries, it has been ratified so far only by 20 countries.

The US and the UK, the two main partners in the ongoing war on terror, has so far not signed and ratified the convention expressing “reservations” on some of its articles.