ISLAMABAD, January 29, 2020: The Punjab Assembly was prorogued sine die on Wednesday amidst a lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are the key observations of the House proceedings during fifth and last sitting of the 18th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for three hours and 11 minutes while the sitting remained suspended for an hour and 41 minutes due to prayer break.
- The sitting started at 1629 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in absence of the Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 42 (11%) MPAs were present at the outset and 20 (5%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- A parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
- Four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up five out of eight starred questions while the lawmakers asked 14 supplementary questions as well.
- An Adjournment Motion (AM) of PML-N lawmaker remained unaddressed due to absence of the concerned minister.
- The House resumed general discussion on the subjects related to Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir, inflation in the country, and law and order situation. Four lawmakers – PML-N (two), PPPP and PTI (one each) –participated in the discussion for 28 minutes. The discussion was not concluded due to lack of quorum.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as nine lawmakers spoke on 21 Points of Order consuming 50 minutes of the proceedings.
- The entire opposition walked out at 1912 hours against the attitude of the Chair for not giving floor to a PML-N lawmaker. They returned to the House at 1924 hours.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1939 hours that led to the prorogation of the session after counting as the attendance of lawmakers was less than the required strength. (i.e. one-fourth of the total membership).
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 PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted