ISLAMABAD, October 22, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab on Monday took up a Question of Privilege against the Leader of the Opposition and referred it to a Special Committee, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Monday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the third (budget) session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 18 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1543 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 47 minutes while the rest of the sitting was presided over by the Deputy Speaker.
- The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 38 minutes.
- The Finance Minister attended the entire sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 67 MPAs (18%) were present at outset and 70 (19%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leader of Rah-e-Haq Party attended the sitting.
- As many as two out of eight minority lawmakers also attended the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as five lawmakers participated in the budget discussion that continued for 37 minutes.
- The House referred a PTI lawmaker’s Question of Privilege to a Special Committee constituted for this purpose. The lawmaker moved that the behavior of the Leader of the Opposition had breached the privilege of the House.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as six lawmakers spoke on as many Points of Order consuming seven minutes of the proceedings.
- Two lawmakers belonging to PML-N pointed out the quorum separately. On both occasions, the quorum got complete after ringing of the bells for five minutes.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on October 23, 2018 (Tuesday) at 1100 hours.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Punjab Assembly’s website.
- 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.