ISLAMABAD, November 28, 2016: The Punjab Assembly was adjourned due to lack of quorum without transacting legislative agenda for third consecutive sitting on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 25th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and two minutes.
- The proceedings remained suspended for 36 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1615 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 19 minutes.
- Twenty-eight lawmakers (7%) were present at outset and 75 (20%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
- Three minority members were present.
Output
- The House did not take up legislative business appearing on Orders of the Day.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as six out of 18 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while seven questions were dropped due to absence of the movers. The lawmakers also asked 14 Supplementary Questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on three Points of Order consuming two minutes of the proceedings.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1749 hours that led to suspension of proceedings for 15 minutes. However, the quorum was not found complete upon resumption of proceedings and the sitting was adjourned.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Information on Members’ attendance is available on Punjab Assembly’s website.
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.