ISLAMABAD, November 28, 2019: The Punjab Assembly adopted four resolutions to extend as many Ordinances amid protest by the Opposition lawmakers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the ninth sitting of the 16th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for two hours and 14 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 30 minutes due to prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1620 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- A Member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the sitting in the absence of Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for nine minutes.
- As many as 40 MPAs (11%) were present at the outset and 115 (31%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- Only PPPP’s parliamentary leader was present.
- As many as three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- Moved by the Minister for Law, the House adopted four resolutions to extend as many Ordinances including the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Ordinance 2019; the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2019; the Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Councils (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 and the Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2019.
- The Minister for Law presented four audit reports related to various departments.
- The House witnessed presentation of two reports by the Standing Committees on Home and Local Government.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took nine out of 33 starred questions while the lawmakers also asked 22 supplementary questions.
- The Minister for Law responded to an Adjournment Motion (AM) of a PML-N lawmaker which was regarding cases of sexual abuse against children.
- Three other AMs remained unaddressed due to no reply received from the relevant departments.
- The Minister for Law responded to a Call Attention Notice (CAN) about death of a police constable during firing by drug peddlers Sargodha.
- Another CAN on the agenda was not taken up due to the absence of mover.
Order and Institutionalization
- A lawmaker spoke on point of order for three minutes.
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1817 hours which was found complete upon counting.
- The lawmakers protested for 12 minutes against the passage of resolutions related to extension of as four Ordinances.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on November 29, 2019 (Friday) at 0900 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Punjab Assembly’s website.
- 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