ISLAMABAD, January 21, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab skipped the regular agenda and held discussion on the Sahiwal incident on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 11th sitting of the sixth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for three hours and 14 minutes while the sitting remained suspended for 18 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1644 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 52 minutes while a member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the remaining proceedings.
- The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of Opposition attended the sitting for 44 minutes.
- As many as 60 MPAs (16%) were present at the outset while 85 (23%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- Only the parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
- As many as six out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- The House did not take up its scheduled business appearing on `Order of the Day’.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as 22 lawmakers discussed the Sahiwal incident consuming an hour and 44 minutes of the proceedings.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as 13 lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 20 minutes of the proceedings.
- The lawmakers belonging to the opposition protested on floor of the House for five minutes when they were initially denied to discuss the Sahiwal Incident. The government’s stance was to discuss this issue after report of Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1928 hours that led to the suspension of proceedings for 18 minutes. On resumption of the proceedings, the House was not in order and the Chair adjourned it to meet again on January 22, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1100 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.