ISLAMABAD, October 18, 2017: The Punjab Assembly addressed the entire agenda amidst lack of quorum and in the absence of Leader of the House on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 32nd session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and 11 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 54 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1128 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 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 proceedings for an hour and 27 minutes.
- As many as 13 MPAs (4%) were present at the outset and 64 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and JI attended the sitting.
- Two minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The government introduced the Punjab Zakat and Ushr Bill 2017 and the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2017. The House referred the bills to the relevant committees.
- The government also presented the Annual Report of the Punjab Public Service Commission for the year 2016, the Annual Reports of the Punjab Pension Fund for the years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16, the Appropriation Accounts of the Forest Department for the year 2015-16, the Audit Reports on the Accounts of Government of the Punjab (Works Department) C&W, HUD&PHE, Irrigation, LG&CD Departments and Daanish Schools & Centers of Excellence Authority for the audit year 2016-17, the Special Audit Reports on the accounts of FDA City Housing Scheme for the years 2014-15 & 2015-16, the Project Audit Report on the accounts of Ashiana Housing Scheme (Ashiana-e-Quaid) Attari Saroba Lahore for the year 2012-13, the Project Audit Report on the accounts of construction of Additional Assembly Building Lahore for the year 2013-14, the Performance Audit Report on the accounts of construction of Chohan Dam Rawalpindi Irrigation Department for the year 2014-15 and the Audit Report on the accounts of Government of the Punjab, Public Sector Enterprises (ARFSE) for the year 2016-17.
- The Standing Committee on Home presented a report while the House granted two-month extension to the Special Committee No. 9 for its report.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as 10 out of 18 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while two questions were deferred on the request of the movers. The remaining six questions were disposed of due to the absence of the concerned lawmakers. The legislators asked 20 supplementary questions as well.
- The House referred three Privilege Motions to the relevant standing committee while an Adjournment Motion and a Privilege Motion of the PTI lawmakers were deferred.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers raised 15 Points of Order consuming 19 minutes of the proceedings.
- The opposition lawmakers protested against the imposition of regulatory duty on the import of various eatable and luxury items.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1305 hours that led to the suspension of the proceedings for 54 minutes. An Independent lawmaker identified quorum again at 1420 hours; however, it was found complete after the ringing of bells for five minutes.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- Information on Members’ attendance is available on the Punjab Assembly’s website.
The daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly’s proceedings conducted by PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted.