ISLAMABAD, June 15, 2017: The Punjab Assembly session was prorogued after the House approved 41Supplemetnary Demands for Grants on Thursday, says Free and Fair Election Network in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during 10^th sitting of 30th session:

 Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 23 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1532 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
•  The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for seven minutes.
• The Finance Minister attended the sitting for two hours and 21 minutes.
• 40 lawmakers (11%) were present at the outset and 90 (24%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leader of any political party attended the sitting.
• Seven minority members were present.

Output

• The Finance Minister concluded the General Discussion on Supplementary Budget 2016-17. Her speech consumed six minutes of the sitting.
• The House approved 41 Supplementary Demands for Grants for the year 2016-2017.
• Five lawmakers discussed a Cut Motion consuming 75 minutes. The motion was rejected by the House while the Minister for Finance spoke about it for seven minutes.
• The Finance Minister laid the Supplementary Schedule of Authorized Expenditure for the year 2016-2017.
• The House witnessed presentation of a report of Public Accounts Committee.

Order and Institutionalization

• The Opposition lawmakers staged walkout at 1733 hours against rejection of their cut motion and did not return to the House till the prorogation.
• An Independent lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1542 hours following which Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes and the quorum was found complete upon counting.
• The same lawmaker pointed out quorum again at 1723 hours but it was found complete upon counting.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• 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