ISLAMABAD, June 13, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab transacted its entire business appearing on `Orders of the Day’ on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the 10th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 58 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1634 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present during the proceedings.
- The Leaders of the House did not attend the proceedings.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for an hour and 11 minutes. He was released from NAB custody to attend the House proceedings on production orders issued by the Speaker.
- As many as 65 MPAs (17%) were present at the outset and 115 (31%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the sitting.
- All eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output
- The Minister for Law presented Punjab Judicial Academy report for the year 2015-2016 and the Punjab Public Service Commission report for the year 2017.
- The Minister for Law introduced the Punjab Zakat and Ushr (Amendment) Bill 2019 which was referred to relevant standing committee.
- He also laid two ordinances including the Punjab Khal Panchayat Ordinance 2019 and the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Ordinance 2019.
- The Chairperson Standing Committee on Law presented report on the Punjab Alternative Dispute Resolution Bill 2019.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Parliamentary Secretary responded to nine out of 12 Starred Questions while one question was disposed of due to absence of the mover and two were not taken up. The lawmakers asked 18 supplementary questions as well.
- The Minister for Law responded to two Call Attention Notice(CANs) regarding abduction of a girl in Pak Pattan and bomb blast outside a shrine in Lahore on May 8, 2019. These CANs were moved by PML and PML-N lawmakers respectively.
Order and Institutionalization
- Nine lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 31 minutes of the proceedings.
- The House was adjourned to meet again on June 14, 2019 (Friday) at 1500 hours.
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