ISLAMABAD, January 23, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab passed three government bills including the Punjab Domestic Workers Bill, 2018 on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 13th sitting of the sixth session:
Members’ Participation
- The Assembly met for three hours and 29 minutes, while the sitting remained suspended for 47 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1120 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours while the Speaker chaired the rest of the sitting.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 30 MPAs (8%) were present at the outset while 70 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- Only the parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
- As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the Punjab Domestic Workers Bill, 2018 and the Namal Institute Mianwali Bill, 2019 without any debate. These bills were introduced in the House on December 12, 2018 and January 10, 2019 respectively.
- Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the Punjab Occupational Safety and Health Bill, 2019 after debating it for 11 minutes. As many as four lawmakers debated the bill which was initially introduced on January 9, 2019.
- The House deferred the Punjab Prevention of Conflict of Interest Bill, 2018 on the request by opposition lawmakers.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Minister for Local Government and Community Development responded to three Starred Questions. The lawmakers asked 11 supplementary questions as well.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as 26 lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 31 minutes of the proceedings.
- A lawmaker belonging to PML-N staged a walkout for 10 minutes over unsatisfactory reply on his question addressed to the ministry of Local Government and Community Development.
- The opposition lawmakers staged a ten-minute protest and demanded the government to present the report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on killing of unarmed civilians in Sahiwal.
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the lack of quorum at 1130 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes and subsequently to the suspension of proceedings for 47 minutes.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on January 24, 2019 (Thursday) at 1100 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on the 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 PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.