ISLAMABAD, November 23, 2017: The Punjab Assembly did not take up the legislative business appearing on its Orders of the Day on Thursday due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the 33rd session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 21 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1715 hours against the scheduled time 1500 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 20 minutes.
- As many as 30 MPAs (8%) were present at outset and 17 (4%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
- Three minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House did not take up the Punjab Hepatitis Ordinance 2017 and the Punjab Tianjin University of Technology Lahore Ordinance 2017.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as nine out of 22 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while six Starred Questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers and three were deferred. The lawmakers also asked 21 supplementary questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers raised five Points of Order consuming eight minutes of the proceedings.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1829 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes. However, the quorum was still incomplete after the bells and the sitting was adjourned to meet again on Friday (tomorrow) at 0900 hours.
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.