ISLAMABAD, January 07, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab was adjourned on Monday due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and one minute.
• The sitting started at 1624 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The entire sitting was presided over by a member of Panel of Chairpersons in the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker. Currently, the Speaker is acting Governor of Punjab.
• The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 80 MPAs (22%) were present at the outset while 62 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and Rah-e-Haq party attended the proceedings.
• As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output:

• The House did not take up the Punjab Occupational Safety and Health Bill, 2019.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The minister for law responded to a PML-N lawmaker’s Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding robbery incident in Faisalabad. Four other CANs on the agenda were not taken up due to absence of the movers.
• Special Committee-I presented a report in the House.
• The House took up five out of nine Starred questions while two questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers and the remaining two were not addressed. These questions were addressed to the ministries of Local Government and Community Development, Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries. The lawmakers asked nine supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 30 Points of Order consuming 54 minutes of the proceedings.
• A lawmaker belonging to PML-N staged a six-minute walkout against the alleged interruption by the assembly secretariat staff in the House proceedings.
• The lawmakers belonging to PPPP walked out from the proceedings at 1804 hours and did not return till the adjournment of the sitting. They were protesting against an unduly nominated Panel of Chairpersons presiding over the sitting.

• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the lack of quorum at 1918 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes and subsequently to the adjournment of proceedings.

• The House was adjourned early to meet again on January 08, 2019 (Tuesday) at 1100 hours.

Transparency

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