ISLAMABAD, April 30, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab passed two government bills including the Local Government Bill, 2019 on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during seventh sitting of the ninth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and five minutes.
• The sitting started at 1527 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the proceedings.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for 55 minutes.
• As many as 183 MPAs (49%) were present at the outset and 160 (43%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the sitting.
• As many as five out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House passed the Punjab Local Government Bill, 2019 and the Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Councils Bill, 2019 as recommended by the Standing Committee on Local Government and Community Development. As many as four lawmakers – PML-N three and PTI one – debated the Local Government Bill, 2019 for 36 minutes.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Ministers for Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries, and Information & Culture responded to 12 out of 15 Starred Questions while the remaining three questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers. The lawmakers asked 25 supplementary questions as well.
• The Minister for Health responded to an Adjournment Motion of a PTI lawmaker regarding lack of paramedical staff in Tehsil Headquarter Hospital, Pattoki.

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition parties staged a walkout at 1720 hours against the Chair for disallowing the debate on the Local Government Bill, 2019.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the lack of quorum at 1722 hours; however, it was found complete on headcount.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on May 2, 2019 (Thursday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on 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