ISLAMABAD, April 4, 2016: The Punjab Assembly witnessed walkout by Opposition and suspension of the proceeding due to lack of quorum on Monday during 4th sitting of its 20th 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 three hours and 44 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1513 hours against the scheduled time 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 17 minutes while the remaining proceeding was chaired by the Deputy Speaker.
- The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours and 37 minutes.
- 23 MPAs (6%) were present at outset and 21 (5%) at adjournment of the sitting.
- The parliamentary leaders of PPPP, PML-Z and JI attended the sitting.
- Four minority members were present.
Representation and Responsiveness
- The House witnessed Pre-Budget discussion and the Opposition Leader discussed it for 80 minutes.
- The government orally answered 12 out of 32 starred questions appearing on the agenda. The lawmakers also asked 35 supplementary questions.
- The House did not consider a privilege motion of a lawmaker belonging to PML-N.
- An Adjournment Motion (AM) was not taken up by the House which was about absence of firefighting equipment in various factories at Lahore.
- Three Calling Attention Notices (CANs) were not taken up by the House.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on four points of order consuming seven minutes of the proceeding.
- Lawmakers from PTI, JI and PML staged protest within the House for three minutes over not getting permission to table resolution about allegation on Pakistani leadership in `Panama Leaks’. Later, they walked out of the House on the same issue at 1627 hours and returned at 1722 hours.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum soon after the walkout of the Opposition lawmakers following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and sitting remained suspended for 30 minutes.
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.