ISLAMABAD, September 2, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab took up most of its agenda and passed six government bills, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 24th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 20 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1626 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
- The Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 25 (0.06%) MPAs were present at the outset and 65 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- No parliamentary leader of any party attended the proceedings.
- Only one minority lawmaker attended the sitting.
Output
- Moved by Minister for Law, the House passed the Times Institute, Multan Bill 2020, the Punjab Waqf Properties (Amendment) Bill 2020, the Punjab Trusts Bill 2020, the Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill 2020, the Punjab protected areas bill 2020 and the Punjab women protection authority (amendment) bill 2020.
- Law Minister also introduced the Punjab Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill 2020, the Punjab Parole Bill 2020 and the Punjab Good Conduct Prisoners’ Probational Release (Amendment) Bill 2020 in the House.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up two out of 36 starred questions while five questions were disposed off due to absence of their movers.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as three lawmakers spoke on Points of Order for 16 minutes.
- The House took up a privilege motion submitted by a PMLN lawmaker about the non-compliance of departments on the production order of Opposition Leader.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on September 3, 2020 (Thursday) at 1400 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