ISLAMABAD, February 25, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab was adjourned on Monday without addressing its agenda 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 fourth sitting of the seventh session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 59 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1620 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 90 MPAs (24%) were present at the outset and 78 (21%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the proceedings.
• As many as three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take up its scheduled legislative business.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Ministers for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education and Primary and Secondary Healthcare responded to eight out of 23 Starred Questions appearing on the agenda while 15 others were not taken up. The lawmakers asked 19 supplementary questions as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• A lawmaker spoke on a Point of Order for one minute.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out lack of quorum at 1738 hours that led to the ringing of bells for five minutes and subsequently to the suspension of the proceedings for 28 minutes
• The House was adjourned to meet again on February 26, 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