ISLAMABAD, September 19, 2017: The Tuesday’s sitting of the Punjab Assembly could not proceed beyond 27 minutes due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of the 31st session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for 45 minutes. However, the proceedings remained suspended for 18 minutes due to lack of quorum.
- The sitting started at 1122 hours against the scheduled time 1000 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for six minutes.
- As many as five MPAs (1%) were present at outset and 55 (15%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
- Only one minority lawmaker was present.
Output
- The House did not take up the private members’ resolutions appearing on Orders of the Day.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as two out of 38 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while six questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers and one was deferred. The lawmakers also asked five supplementary questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- The Leader of the Opposition pointed out the quorum at 1126 hours that led to suspension of the proceedings for 18 minutes. However, the quorum was still incomplete on resumption of the proceedings and the sitting was adjourned.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- 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.