ISLAMABAD, August 24, 2016: The Punjab Assembly witnessed introduction of nine government legislative proposals, including five ordinances and four bills, while missing quorum was identified twice on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 23rd session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 28 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1107 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 22 minutes.
- Twenty-one lawmakers (5%) were present at outset and 47 (12%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leader of JI attended the sitting.
- Three minority members were present.
Output
- The Provincial Law Minister laid the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 (XIV of 2016), the Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority (Amendment) Ordinance 2016, the Punjab Restriction on Employment of Children Ordinance 2016, the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 (XVI of 2016) and the Punjab Local Government (Third Amendment) Ordinance 2016 before the House.
- The House witnessed introduction of the Infrastructure Development Authority of The Punjab (Amendment) Bill 2016, the Parks and Horticulture Authority (Amendment) Bill 2016, the University of Home Economics Lahore Bill 2016 and the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2016.
- The House granted two-month extension in time to the Standing Committees on Agriculture, Transport, Communication & Works, Colonies and Services & General Administration for presentation of their reports on various matters referred to them.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as six out of 10 Starred Questions were responded to on floor of the House while two others were disposed of due to the absence of movers. The lawmakers also asked 14 Supplementary Questions.
- The House deferred an Adjournment Motion regarding attack on a police station by former PML-N lawmaker Hanif Abbasi.
- The Chair directed the government to submit report on the commercial use of residential property in area adjacent to Forman Christian College University, Lahore. The matter was raised by a PML-N lawmaker during Zero Hour.
- The House referred a Privilege Motion of PML-N lawmaker to the relevant committee.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on 11 Points of Order consuming 17 minutes of the proceedings.
- An Independent lawmaker pointed out quorum twice at 1220 hours and 1330 hours. The quorum was found incomplete on both occasions; however, it was completed on first instance after the bells were rung for five minutes. Fifteen minutes of the proceedings were consumed in headcounts and ringing of the bells.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Information on Members’ attendance (except for parliamentary functionaries) 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 excepted.