ISLAMABAD, April 28, 2017: The 28th session of the Punjab Assembly was prorogued sine die on Friday in the absence of Chief Minister, Opposition Leader, all parliamentary leaders as well as most of the honorable members of the House, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during fifth and last sitting:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 14 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for an hour and three minutes due to lack of quorum.
- The sitting started at 1017 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- Five lawmakers (1%) were present at the outset and 55 (14%) at the adjournment of sitting.
- None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
- Four minority members were present.
Output
- The House did not take up the report appearing on the agenda.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as 11 out of 27 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while eight questions were disposed of and as many were deferred due to the absence of movers. The lawmakers asked 11 supplementary questions.
- The House deferred three Adjournment Motions of PML-N and PML lawmakers.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on four Points of Order consuming five minutes of the proceedings.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1026 hours that led to the suspension of proceedings for an hour and three minutes.
- An Independent lawmaker again identified quorum at 1225 hours that led to the prorogation of the session.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- 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.