ISLAMABAD, May 2, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab could not take up the legislative agenda on Wednesday due to low attendance of Members, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the 35th session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 42 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1542 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
- The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
- The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) did not attend the sitting.
- The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for 49 minutes.
- Thirty-five MPAs (9%) were present at the outset while 65 (18%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- Parliamentary leader of JI was present.
- Four minority lawmakers also attended the proceedings.
Output
- The House did not take up the legislative business appearing on the Orders of the Day.
Representation and Responsiveness
- Four out of nine Starred Questions were answered while two questions were disposed of due to the absence of relevant lawmakers. The legislators asked 12 supplementary questions as well. The proceedings remained suspended for 27 minutes during the Question Hour due to the absence of the Secretary of the relevant government department.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers raised five Points of Order consuming eight minutes of the proceedings.
- The opposition lawmakers staged a four-minute protest over unwarranted remarks of the Punjab Law Minister.
- A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1627 hours that led to ringing of the bells for five minutes. The House was not found in order after the count at 1703 hours.
- The House was later adjourned to meet again at 1000 hours tomorrow.
Transparency
- Orders of the Day was available for the legislators, observers and the public.
- Information on Members’ attendance is available on Punjab 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.