ISLAMABAD, September 17, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab left most of its agenda unaddressed on Private Member’s Day, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of the 14th session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and 52 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1242 hours against the scheduled time of 1130 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 12 minutes while a member of the panel of Chairperson chaired the rest of the proceedings.
- The Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 60 MPAs (16%) were present at the outset and 73 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the proceedings.
- As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Output:
- The House passed two motions granting extension of 60 days each to Standing Committee on Home and Special Committee on Health for presenting their reports on the Punjab Sentencing Bill 2019 and the Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Bill 2019 respectively.
- The Minister for Law presented reports on the Punjab Zakat and Ushr (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Punjab Finance Bill, 2019 and the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
- Two bills including the Punjab Prohibition of Sheesha Smoking, Use and Sale of the Crystal Ice Bill 2019 and he Punjab Restriction on Manufacture, Sale, Use and Import of Polythene Bags Bill 2019 were withdrawn by their respective movers.
- A bill – the Punjab Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2019 – was deferred on the request of Provincial Minister for Law.
- Another bill – the Punjab Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 – was deferred due to absence of relevant minister.
- The House did not take up any of the eight resolutions appearing on the agenda.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Minister for Home Department responded to five out of 28 starred questions while the lawmakers asked nine supplementary questions as well.
- The Minister for law responded to a Privilege Motion of a PML-N lawmaker regarding misconduct of a police officer with him outside the NAB court.
- A privilege motion of a PTI lawmaker was referred to the relevant committee which was regarding unethical behavior of a health official with him.
- The House referred an Adjournment Motion (AM) of PML-N lawmaker to Special Committee. This motion was regarding poor condition of Child Protection Bureaus and behaviors of their staff with the homeless children.
- Sponsored by a PML-N lawmaker, the Chair admitted an AM for debate which was regarding irrigation issue in Bahawalnagar and rehabilitation of a link canal.
Order and Institutionalization
- As many as 14 lawmakers spoke on points of order consuming 19 minutes of the proceedings.
- PML-N lawmakers walked out of the proceedings at 1355 hours against non-issuance of production order of the Opposition leader and did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting. Earlier, they protested on floor of the House on same issue for three minutes.
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1356 hours but it was found complete upon counting.
- The quorum was pointed out again at 1425 hours by another PML-N lawmaker which led to the adjournment of sitting till September 19, 2019 (Thursday) at 1500 hours due to presence of less than 25 percent lawmakers in the House.
Transparency
- ‘Orders of the Day’ and attendance of the lawmakers is available on the website of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab.
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