ISLAMABAD, October 17, 2017: The Punjab Assembly adopted three private members’ resolutions on Tuesday amid low attendance of lawmakers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of 32nd Session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 19 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1106 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and 41 minutes.
- As many as nine MPAs (2%) were present at the outset and 22 (6%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- Only JI parliamentary leader attended the sitting.
- Three minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House adopted three resolutions recommending to the government to upgrade employees in Grade 16 and Grade 17, continue subsidy on fertilizers and fix targets for Commercial Attaches to enhance exports of agricultural products.
- A resolution about establishing mother care centers in educational institutions was withdrawn by the mover while three other resolutions were not taken up due to absence of concerned lawmakers.
- The Standing Committees on Services & General Administration, Environment Protection, Housing, Urban Development & Public Health Engineering and Local Government & Community Development.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as two out of 15 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while six questions were disposed of due to absence of concerned lawmakers and seven were deferred. The lawmakers also asked four supplementary questions.
- The House deferred five Adjournment Motions on request of the government while two Privilege Motions were not taken up.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on 24 Points of Order consuming 50 minutes of the proceedings.
- A PTI lawmaker protested in the House for two minutes when the Chair did not allow the consideration of his Privilege Motion.
- The entire opposition staged a two-minute walkout against the police raid at the house of a lawmaker without search warrants.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Partial 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.