ISLAMABAD, May 09, 2016: The Punjab Assembly could not take up its legislative agenda due to lack of quorum on Monday during second 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 41 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1542 hours against the scheduled time 1500 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 41 minutes.
- 5 MPAs (1%) were present at outset and 65 (17%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the sitting.
- Five minority members were present.
Output
- The House did not take up the Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority Ordinance 2016 and the Punjab Local Government (Fourth Amendment) Bill 2016.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The government orally responded to five out of eight starred questions appearing on the agenda while a question was disposed of due to absence of relevant lawmaker. The lawmakers asked also 17 supplementary questions.
- The House deferred a Calling Attention Notice (CAN) on request of the mover while another CAN was disposed of due to absence of the relevant lawmaker.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on 11 points of order consuming nine minutes of the proceeding.
- Entire Opposition protested for three minutes against the remarks of a parliamentary secretary about the inferior status of members elected on reserved seats. They staged token walked out at 1634 hours and returned to the House after five minutes.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1717 hours following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. However, the sitting had to be adjourned when the quorum was found incomplete on recounting after the bells.
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.