ISLAMABAD, September 16, 2019: The quorum issue disrupted the proceedings of Provincial Assembly of Punjab on Monday which witnessed introduction of a government bill and presentation of two Ordinances, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the 14th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for two hours and 33 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for an hour and four minutes due to lack of quorum and prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1716 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 75 MPAs (20%) were present at the outset and 60 (16%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the proceedings.
- As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output:
- The Minister for Law laid the Punjab Aab-E-Pak Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 and the Women University Rawalpindi, Ordinance, 2019.
- The Minister for Law also introduced the Punjab Workers Welfare Fund Bill, 2019 which was referred to relevant Standing Committee for further deliberations.
- The House did not take up the Punjab Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill, 2019.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Two Calling Attention Notices appearing on agenda remained unaddressed due to lack of quorum.
Order and Institutionalization
- Ten lawmakers spoke on points of order consuming an hour and three minutes of the proceedings.
- A lawmaker belonging to PML-N pointed out quorum at 1915 hours which led to the suspension of the proceedings for 26 minutes after ringing of the bells for five minutes.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on September 17, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1130 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ and attendance of the lawmakers is available on the website of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab.
The daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted.