ISLAMABAD, November 7, 2012: Starting two hours and 30 minutes behind schedule, the third sitting of 42th session of the Punjab Assembly did not take up any of the 11 bills on the Orders of the Day.

The House also suspended the Question House for general discussion on the Supreme Court verdict in the Asghar Khan case.  Eleven MPAs – five of PPPP, two each of PMLN and PML, one each of MMAP and PML-FB – took part in the discussion on the case for 72 minutes.

After a PML Member pointed out quorum at 1445, the proceedings were suspended for 15 minutes, which resumed after 25 minutes.

The Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Speaker and the parliamentary leaders of PML, PMLF and PMLZ did not attend the sitting.

Thirteen Points of Order consumed 22 minutes of sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 55 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1230 hours instead of the scheduled starting time of 1000 hours. The proceedings were delayed by two hours and 30 minutes.
• The Speaker chaired the entire sitting. The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were not present.
• Only the parliamentary leader of MMAP attended the sitting.
• Sixty-three Members (17% of the total membership) were present at the start while 86 (23%) were there when the sitting was adjourned. A maximum of 117 Members (31%) were present at one point of the sitting.
• The Minority Members were present during the sitting.
• The House took a 30-minute break.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Question Hour was suspended due to general discussion on the Asghar Khan case.
• Eleven MPAs – five of PPPP, two each of PMLN and PML, one each of MMAP and PML-FB – took part in the discussion on the case for 72 minutes.

Output

• Eleven bills – the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2012, the Punjab Livestock Breeding Bill 2012, the Punjab Private Education Commission Bill 2012, the Punjab Building Control & Housing Schemes Regulatory Authority Bill 2012, the Punjab Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill 2012, the Punjab Partition of Immovable Property Bill 2012, the Lahore Canal Heritage Bill 2012, the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2012, the Punjab Metro Bus Authority Bill 2012, the Public Sector Universities (Amendment) Bill 2012 and the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Lahore (Amendment) Bill 2012 were not taken up by the House. 

Order and Institutionalization

• Thirteen Points of Order consumed 22 minutes of sitting time. However, none of the Points of Order attracted the Chair’s formal ruling.
• There were no instances of protests, boycotts or walkouts during the sitting.

Transparency

• Orders of the Day were available to Legislators, observers and others.
• Information on Members’ attendance was unavailable to observers and the public.
• The quorum, visibly lacking at various stages of the sitting, was pointed out by a PML Member. It led to suspension of proceedings for 15 minutes. However proceedings resumed after 25 minutes.

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