- Punjab Assembly Leaves 51% Agenda Unaddressed during 32nd Session
- Six out of 11 sittings adjourned due to lack of quorum
ISLAMABAD, November 2, 2017: The Punjab Assembly left 51% of its scheduled business unaddressed due to low attendance and treasury’s disinterest during 32nd session. The House took up 88 percent bills, 55 percent resolutions, thirty-three discussions and only six percent Adjournment Motions during the proceedings. Moreover, only 30 percent Starred Questions were discussed by the House.
The Adjournment Motions were not discussed due to unpreparedness of the treasury while the resolutions remained unaddressed due to the absence of the concerned lawmakers. The unaddressed bills and discussions were not taken up due to lack of quorum. As many as six out of 11 sittings were adjourned due to quorum deficiency.
The session, comprising eleven sittings, started on October 16, 2017 and concluded on October 30, 2017. On average, each sitting started an hour and 48 minutes behind the scheduled time and lasted an hour and 49 minutes.
According to FAFEN’s observation, the lawmakers’ attendance remained low throughout the session – with an average of 16 (4%) members present at the start and 42(11%) at the adjournment of each sitting. The Chief Minister did not attend any sitting while the Leader of the Opposition attended ten sittings for 10 hours and 27 minutes (52% of the proceedings).
The Speaker attended all sittings and chaired the House for 13 hours and 49 minutes while the Deputy Speaker attended four sittings and presided over the proceedings for three hours and nine minutes. The rest of the time (three hours and eight minutes) was lost in suspension of the proceedings due to lack of quorum.
The parliamentary leaders of political parties represented in the assembly did not attend most of the sittings. The JI leader attended three sittings and was followed by leaders of PML-Z (two) and PPPP (one). The leaders of PML, BNA-P and PNML did not attend any of the sittings.
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