ISLAMABAD, February 21, 2020: The requisitioned session of Provincial Assembly of Punjab could not start debate on price control and law and order situation due to protest of the opposition resulting walkout by the treasury lawmakers from the House, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Friday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the 19th session requisitioned by opposition lawmakers:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour.
- The sitting started at 1120 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 3 (1%) MPAs were present at the outset and 85 (23%) 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
- The House did not take up the government business regarding general discussion on price control and law and order
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Question Hour was not observed as the Chair allowed the members to speak on points of order during first hour of the sitting.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as seven lawmakers spoke on points of order consuming 45 minutes of the proceedings.
- The opposition protested during two-third of the proceedings’ time following which the treasury lawmakers walked out of the House at 1217 hours and did not return till adjournment of the sitting.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on February 24, 2020 (Monday) at 1500 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on 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 SANGAT Development Foundation – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted