ISLAMABAD, January 17, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab adopted two supplementary resolutions on Thursday while skipping the scheduled discussion on performance of development authorities, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during ninth sitting of the sixth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for one hour and 41 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1319 hours against the scheduled time of 1130 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 45 MPAs (12%) were present at the outset while 32 (9%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
- As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- Moved by the Minister for Law, the House unanimously adopted two supplementary resolutions offering prayers for the deceased lawmaker Mazhar Abbas Raan and recommending the government to make conditional the payment to media houses on account of advertisements with the payment of salaries to journalists.
- The House did not hold the scheduled discussion on Annual Reports of Development Authorities of Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad for the year 2012-13.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The government responded to four out of 11 Starred Questions while one question was disposed of due to absence of the mover and six questions were not taken up. These questions were addressed to the ministries of Special Healthcare & Medical Education and Primary & Secondary Health Care. The lawmakers asked 12 supplementary questions as well.
- The Minister for Law responded to a PTI lawmaker’s Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding murder in Dera Ghazi Khan. Another CAN was disposed of due to absence of the mover.
- The Minister for Public Prosecution responded to a PTI lawmaker’s Adjournment Motion regarding increase in the road accidents due to electronic advertisement boards in Lahore.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as 24 lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 23 minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on January 18, 2019 (Friday) at 0900 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on the Assembly’s website.
- Information on Members’ attendance is available on the 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.