ISLAMABAD, February 28, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab unanimously adopted a resolution recommending the federal government to construct a dual carriage way from Kashmore to Dera Ismail Khan, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Thursday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of the ongoing (seventh) session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 47 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1245 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of the Speaker.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 80 MPAs (22%) were present at the outset and 74 (20%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PRHP attended the proceedings.
• As many as six out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Jointly sponsored by the treasury and opposition lawmakers, the House unanimously adopted a resolution urging the federal government to take steps to construct dual carriage way at Indus Highway from Kashmor to Dera Ismail Khan to avoid deadly road accidents.
• The Minister for Law initiated the debate on Annual Report of the Punjab Public Service Commission for the year 2011. He spoke for two minutes on these reports.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Minister for Prisons responded to seven out of eight Starred Questions appearing on the agenda while one question was disposed of due to absence of the mover. The lawmakers asked 22 supplementary questions as well.
• The Minister for Law responded to three Call Attention Notices (CANs) appearing on the agenda regarding incidents of robbery in Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan and death of a teacher in Gujaranwala due to roof collapse. These CANs were sponsored by PML-N and PTI lawmakers. Another CAN sponsored by PML-N lawmaker was dropped due to absence of the mover.
• The House deferred two Adjournment Motions due to unpreparedness of the ministers to respond to these motions.
• A PML-N lawmaker’s Question of Privilege (QoP) was referred to the Committee on Privileges. The Chair directed the committee to report on the QoP within two months.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as five lawmakers spoke on Point of Orders for eight minutes.

• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1426 hours leading to the ringing of bells for five minutes. However, the quorum was found incomplete on headcount after the bells and the House was adjourned to meet again on March 01, 2019 (Friday) at 0900 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.