ISLAMABAD, November 20, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab passed nine government bills amid Opposition’s walkout against hasty legislation, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Wednesday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the third sitting of the 16th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for two hours and 40 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 43 minutes due to prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1605 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker was also present.
- The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition was present for 27 minutes.
- As many as 60 MPAs (16%) were present at the outset and 94 (25%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- All parliamentary leaders of political parties having representation in the House were absent.
- As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- Moved by Minister for Law, the House passed the Punjab Water Bill 2019; the Punjab Seized and Freezed Facilities (Hospitals and Dispensaries) Bill 2019; the Punjab Regularization of Service (Amendment) Bill 2019; the Provincial Employees’ Social Security (Amendment) Bill 2019; the Punjab Khal Panchayat Bill 2019; the Punjab Workers Welfare Fund Bill 2019; the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority (Amendment) Bill 2019; the Punjab Minimum Wages Bill 2019 and the Rawalpindi Women University, Rawalpindi Bill 2019.
- Minister for Law laid the Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2019 and also presented the Annual Report/Post Election Review-2018.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up seven out of 19 starred Questions while the lawmakers asked 10 supplementary questions as well.
- An adjournment motion of PML-N lawmaker about drainage issue in a village of Tehsil Samandri District Faisalabad was disposed of after reply from the relevant minister.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as fourteen lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for 34 minutes.
- The opposition lawmakers walked out of the House at 1807 against immediate consideration of the government bills and hasty legislation. They did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting at 1845 hour.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on November 21, 2019 (Thursday) at 1500 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