ISLAMABAD, February 3, 2017: The Punjab Assembly witnessed opposition’s protest over “unsatisfactory” reply to an Adjournment Motion regarding loans waived off by Bank of Punjab, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Friday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during tenth sitting of 26th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and two minutes.
- The sitting started at 1017 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 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 an hour and a half.
- Seven MPAs (2%) were present at the outset and 87 (23%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- The parliamentary leader of PTI attended the sitting.
- Six minority members were present.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as 10 out of 34 Starred Questions were responded to during the Question Hour. Nine were disposed of due to the absence of movers while the remaining questions were not taken up by the Chair. The lawmakers also asked 20 supplementary questions.
- Minister for Law responded to Leader of Opposition’s Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding loans waived off by Bank of Punjab while five other AMs remained unaddressed.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on six Points of Order consuming as many minutes of the proceedings.
- Entire opposition protested on floor of the House for eight minutes over “unsatisfactory” reply to an Adjournment Motion regarding loans waived off by Bank of Punjab.
- A PML-N lawmaker staged walkout at 1029 hours for being refused the permission to speak on a Point of Order. He did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting.
- A PTI lawmaker identified quorum at 1211 hours that led to the adjournment of sitting.
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 excepted.