Punjab PA Skips Most of Regular Agenda, Refers Private Member’s Bill to Committee  

• Session Prorogued

ISLAMABAD, February 25, 2020: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab did not consider seven resolutions appearing on the agenda and referred one private member’s bill to the relevant committee, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 19^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and four minutes.
• The sitting started at 1704 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 62 (17%) MPAs were present at the outset and 64 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary Leaders of PPPP and PRH attended the proceedings.
• As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• A PML lawmaker introduced the Green International University Bill, 2020 which was referred to Higher Education committee.
• Tabled by a PTI lawmaker, the House adopted a supplementary resolution to pay tribute to the Pakistan Kabaddi team over winning the World Cup.
• The House did not consider seven private resolutions appearing on agenda.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Chair disposed of all ten starred questions due to the absence of relevant movers.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as six lawmakers spoke on Points of Order consuming 40 minutes of the proceedings.
• The PML-N lawmaker’s walked out from the proceedings of the House for thirteen minutes against decision of Punjab cabinet rejecting Nawaz Sharif’s request for extension in bail.
• The session was prorogued sine die.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on the Assembly’s website.

The daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by SANGAT Development Foundation – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted