ISLAMABAD, December 13, 2013: The Punjab Assembly witnessed the passage of Punjab Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers (Amendment) Bill 2013 and adopted two motions, as the House was prorogued sine die on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet based on direct observation of the proceedings.

Moved by the Deputy Speaker, both the motions were adopted unanimously. The first motion related to the approval of standing committees while the second one dealt with the passage of Auditor General of Pakistan’s reports on the standing committees.

The Punjab Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers (Amendment) Bill, moved by the law minister, was passed by the House after six legislators – PTI (4), PML-N (2) – held 14-minute discussion on it. However, the House didn’t take up three other bills appearing on the List of Business.

The Speaker was absent while the Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.

Following are some key observations of the Parliamentary business:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings:

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and nine minutes.
• The sitting started at 1031 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours, witnessing a delay of an hour and 31 minutes.
• Thirty-two members were present at the start while 95 were there at the time of adjournment. A maximum of 114 members were observed to be present at one point of the sitting.
• The Speaker was not present while the Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the proceedings while the Leader of the Opposition was present for an hour and five minutes.
• Only the parliamentary leader of JI attended the sitting.
• Four minority members were present.

Output

• Tabled by law minister, the House passed the Punjab Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers (Amendment) Bill 2013. Six MPAs – PTI (4), PML-N (2) – held 14-minute discussion on the bill.

Representation and Responsiveness

• 10 out of 20 Starred Questions (requiring oral answers) on the Orders of the Day related to Zakat and Ushr as well as Excise and Taxation Departments were taken up. Relevant minister responded to all the taken up questions. Additionally, members asked 25 supplementary questions.
• An adjournment motion jointly tabled by three MPAs of PTI was disposed of. The motion was on the shortage of AIDS medicines since last month.
• The House unanimously adopted two motions. The adopted motions were on the approval of standing committees and passage of the Auditor General of Pakistan reports on the standing committees.
• Tabled by JI, a resolution related to discussion on the price fixing of sugarcane was kept pending till the next session.

Order and Institutionalization

• MPAs raised four points of order that consumed five minutes of the sitting.
• There were no incidents of protests, walkouts and boycotts.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• Information on members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.

The Daily Factsheet is based on direct observation of Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by PATTAN Development Organization, a member organization of FAFEN