ISLAMABAD, April 13, 2016: The Punjab Assembly passed five bills and concluded pre-budget discussion on Wednesday during 11^th sitting of its 20^th session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The House witnessed low attendance as five MPAs (1%) were present at outset and 20 (5%) at adjournment of the sitting

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and fourteen minutes.
• The sitting started at 1053 hours against the scheduled time 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for four minutes and the Deputy Speaker chaired the proceeding for 110 minutes. The rest of the proceeding was chaired by a member of panel of Chairpersons.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 86 minutes.
• Five MPAs (1%) were present at outset and 20 (5%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leader of PML-Z attended the sitting.
• Two minority members were present.

Output

• Moved by Provincial Minister for Law, the House passed five bills including the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2015; the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (Amendment) Bill 2015; the Fort Monroe Development Authority Bill 2015; the Punjab Local Government (Third Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Punjab Animals Slaughter Control (Amendment) Bill 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Provincial Minister for Finance concluded pre-budget discussion during his 20 minutes speech. Earlier, four other PML-N lawmakers also participated in it and spoke for 31 minutes.
• A PML-N lawmaker’s privilege motion against District Police Officer Mianwali was taken up and referred to the relevant committee.
• The government orally replied to 16 out of 38 starred questions appearing on the agenda. In addition, the lawmakers also asked 34 supplementary questions.

• The House took an adjournment motion (AM) about artificial shortage of medicines and increase in their prices. Another AM remained unanswered which was about uncaring attitude of government for relief to farmers after heavy rain in Multan on March 19, 2016.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 17 points of order consuming 26 minutes of the proceeding.
• Entire Opposition walked out of the House at 1235 hours for rejecting an AM of Opposition Leader about Panama Leaks and terming it as `out of rules’. The Opposition lawmakers did not return to the House till adjournment of the sitting at 1407 hours.
• A PML lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1316 hours following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. The sitting resumed at 1324 hours after completion of quorum.

Transparency

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

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.