ISLAMABAD, January 27, 2017: The Punjab Assembly could not held discussion on five statutory reports due to lack of quorum on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fifth sitting of 26th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 33 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1006 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 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 35 minutes.
- Five MPAs (1%) were present at outset and 72 (19%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- Only JI’s parliamentary leader attended the sitting.
- Three minority members were present.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as eight out of 19 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while seven questions were disposed of due to the absence of movers. The remaining questions were not taken up. The lawmakers also asked 25 supplementary questions.
- The House deferred four Adjournment Motions of PTI and PML-N lawmakers on the request of treasury.
- The House did not take up the discussion on Annual Activity Reports of Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi Development Authorities, and Parks & Horticulture Authority Lahore.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on six Points of Order consuming as many minutes of the proceedings.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1133 hours that led to the adjournment of sitting five minutes later.
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.