ISLAMABAD, April 29, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution on Monday to condemn incidents of terrorism in Sri Lanka, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during sixth sitting of the ninth session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 52 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1610 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 110 MPAs (30%) were present at the outset and 70 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the proceedings.
- As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- The Minister for Law presented seven Special Audit Reports related to various departments of the provincial government. The House referred these reports to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for review.
- Moved by the Minister for Mines and Minerals, the House unanimously adopted a resolution to abolish anti-Islamic content in an O-Level book and take action against those involved inserting such material in curriculum.
- Moved by a PML-N lawmaker, the House unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn the incident of terrorism in Sri Lanka.
- The Minister for Law introduced the Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Bill, 2019. The House referred the bill to relevant standing committee for consideration.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Minister for Industries, Commerce and Investment responded to three out of six Starred Questions while the remaining questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers. The lawmakers asked six supplementary questions as well.
- The Minister for Law responded to two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) related to law and order situation.
- The House deferred an Adjournment Motion (AM) of PTI lawmaker regarding non-payment of medical test fees share to paramedical staff and radiologists at MS Jinnah Hospital Lahore.
- The relevant Minister responded to a Zero Hour (ZH) Notice raised by the PML-N lawmaker regarding difficulties to employees of Education Department for taking leave encashment.
- Moved by the Provincial Minister for Law, the House passed a motion to skip the Private Member’s day on April 30, 2019 for consideration of the Government Business.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as 25 lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 36 minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on April 30, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1400 hours
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
- Information on Members’ attendance is available on 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