ISLAMABAD, May 3, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab was prorogued sine die on Friday amidst a lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during ninth and last sitting of the ninth session:
Members’ Participation
- The House met for an hour and six minutes.
- The sitting started at 1118 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
- A member of the Panel of Chairpersons presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
- The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
- As many as 23 MPAs (6%) were present at the outset and 54 (15%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the sitting.
- As many as two out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government and Community Development responded to nine out of 13 Starred Questions while one question was disposed of due to absence of the mover and three were not taken up. The lawmakers asked 21 supplementary questions as well.
- A PTI lawmaker moved an Adjourned Motion (AM) seeking debate on the sale of unhealthy meat in Kasur but the sitting ended due to lack of quorum before the concerned minister could respond to the motion.
Order and Institutionalization
- A lawmaker raised a Point of Order consuming three minutes of the proceedings.
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the lack of quorum at 1218 hours that led to the prorogation of the session as the attendance of lawmakers was less than the required (i.e. one-fourth of total membership) even after ringing the House bells for five minutes.
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