ISLAMABAD, January 10, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab addressed its entire agenda including a government bill and three Call Attention Notices (CAN) on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the sixth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for an hour and 51 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1234 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The entire sitting was presided over by the Deputy Speaker in absence of the Speaker who is performing duties as Acting Governor of Punjab.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 60 MPAs (16%) were present at the outset while 70 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of Rah-e-Haq party attended the proceedings.
• As many as three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The Minister for Law introduced the Namal Institute Mianwali Bill, 2019. The Chair directed to refer the bill to the relevant standing committee which is yet to be formed. The committee will have two months after its formation to present its report on the bill.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House deferred a PML-N lawmaker’s Adjournment Motion (AM) regarding deteriorating situation of Lawrence Garden in Lahore. The deferral was made due to delay in the response from the relevant ministry.
• The Minister for law responded to three Call Attention Notices (CANs) regarding incidents of murder in Sialkot and Khanewal and killing of a nine-year old girl after rape in Lahore. These CANs were raised by PTI, PML-N and PML lawmakers.
• The House took up eight out of ten Starred Questions while two questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers. These questions were addressed to the ministries of Schools Education and Higher Education. The lawmakers asked 28 supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 15 Points of Order consuming 25 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 11, 2019 (Friday) at 0900 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on the Assembly’s website.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on the 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.