ISLAMABAD, September 19, 2017: The Punjab Assembly granted 90-day extension to three ordinances and passed five government bills on Wednesday, including the bills to grant the status of universities to three medical colleges, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during eighth sitting of the 31^st session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 14 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1141 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 38 minutes while the Deputy Speaker chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for an hour and 47 minutes.
• As many as 30 MPAs (8%) were present at the outset and 33 (9%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PML-Z attended the sitting.
• Four minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House adopted three resolutions under Article 128(2)(a) of the Constitution granting ninety-day extension to the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Ordinance 2017, the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2017 and the Punjab Education Initiatives Management Authority Ordinance 2017.
• The government laid the Audit Report Civil (Expenditure) for the year 2015-16, the Annual Report of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women for the year 2016, the Annual Reports of the Punjab Judicial Academy for the years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 and the Annual Report of the Punjab Pension Fund for the year 2012-13.
• The House passed the Police Order (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Faisalabad Medical University Bill 2017, the Rawalpindi Medical University Bill 2017 and the Nishtar Medical University Bill 2017. The lawmakers debated first three bills for 18 minutes. Four lawmakers, including the Provincial Law Minister participated in the debate.
• The House granted two-month extension to the standing committees on Housing, Urban Development & Public Health Engineering, Colonies, Irrigation & Energy and Forestry and Fisheries for presentation of their reports.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 11 out of 23 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while eight questions were deferred and four were disposed of. The lawmakers also asked 31 supplementary questions.
• The House disposed of a Zero Hour Notice of a PML lawmaker while it deferred two Adjournment Motions of PTI lawmakers.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on eight Points of Order consuming nine minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

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