ISLAMABAD, May 11, 2016: The Punjab Assembly witnessed introduction of an ordinance and a bill and adopted a supplementary resolution on Wednesday during fourth sitting of 21st session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:
Members’ Participation in House Proceedings
- The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 32 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1103 hours against the scheduled time 1000 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for 63 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceeding.
- The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 39 minutes.
- 15 MPAs (4%) were present at outset and 45 (12%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leader of JI attended the sitting.
- Three minority members were present.
Output
- The Provincial Law Minister presented the Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority Ordinance 2016 and the Punjab Local Government (Fourth Amendment) Bill 2016 before the House.
- The House adopted a supplementary resolution jointly sponsored by treasury and opposition lawmakers condemning the hanging of Ameer Jamat-e-Islami Bangladesh Mutaee-u-Rehman. Three lawmakers spoke on the resolution consuming six minutes.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The government orally responded to six out of eight starred questions appearing on the agenda while one question was deferred and another was disposed of due to absence of the mover. The lawmakers asked also 20 supplementary questions.
- The House deferred two Adjournment Motions regarding unavailability of clean drinking water and problems faced by rice growers.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on five points of order consuming four minutes of the proceeding.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1215 hours after which the Chair ordered to ring the bells for five minutes. The quorum was found complete on recounting.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
- The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.
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.