ISLAMABAD, September 3, 2015: Starting an hour and 41 minutes behind schedule, seventh sitting of the Punjab Assembly’s ongoing 16th session was adjourned due to lack of quorum after meeting for an hour and 47 minutes, says Free and Fair Election Network in its daily factsheet.

PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1323 hours, following which the Deputy Speaker ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. However, quorum was found to be incomplete after the count, following which the sitting was adjourned to meet again on Friday.

The House continued to witness low attendance with only 48 (13%) legislators present at the start and 46 (12%) at the time of adjournment. The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 50 minutes.

Minister for Industries, Commerce & Investment opened debate on Annual Report of the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority for the year 2011-12. He spoke on it for two minutes.

Parliamentary Secretary for Services and General Administration Department spoke for three minutes on Annual Report of the Punjab Public Service Commission for the years 2012 and 2013.

Following are some key observations of the proceedings:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 47 minutes.
• Sitting started at 1141 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours, witnessing a delay of an hour and 41 minutes.
• Only 48 (13%) members were present at the start and 46 (12%) at the time of sitting’s adjournment.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting while the Leader of the Opposition was present for 50 minutes.
• Among parliamentary leaders, only the PPPP leader was present.
• Five out of eight minority members attended the sitting.
• No member applied for leave.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding law and order and both CANs were responded to by Provincial Minister for Law.
• Two adjournment motions regarding alleged corruption in Irrigation Departments of Bhakkar and Fateh Jang were disposed of.
• Sixteen out of 36 starred questions appearing on the agenda were answered by the relevant department while the MPAs also raised 24 supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised four Points of Order that consumed five minutes of the proceedings’ time.
• PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1323 hours, following which the Deputy Speaker ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes.  However, quorum was found to be incomplete after the count and the sitting was adjourned till Friday.
• No protests/walkouts/boycotts were witnessed during the entire sitting.

Transparency

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

 To download the factsheet, click here

 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.