ISLAMABAD, November 29, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab was prorogued sine die on Friday amidst a lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 10th and last sitting of the 16th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for 34 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1106 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
- The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 37 MPAs (10%) were present at the outset and 72 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- All parliamentary leaders of political parties having representation in the House were absent.
- As many as two out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- The House did not consider the government business appearing on the agenda.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House took up one out 24 starred questions while a lawmaker also asked one supplementary question.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on 13 Points of Order consuming 21 minutes of the proceedings.
- PML-N lawmakers walked out of the House during question hour at 1134 hours complaining misbehavior of policemen with those parliamentarians visiting courts during hearing of their fellow MPAs facing NAB cases.
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the lack of quorum at 1136 hours that led to the prorogation of the session after counting as the attendance of lawmakers was less than the required (i.e. one-fourth of total membership).
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
- Information on Members’ attendance is available on 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