ISLAMABAD, February 28, 2018: The Punjab Assembly passed a government bill on Wednesday providing for regulation of charity collection in the province, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during 19^th sitting of the 34^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 30 minutes.
• The proceedings remained suspended for 18 minutes due to absence of a government secretary.
• The sitting started at 1053 hours against the scheduled time 1000 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 49 minutes.
• As many as 34 MPAs (9%) were present at outset and 75 (20%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI and PML-Z were present during the proceedings.
• As many as seven minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House passed the Punjab Charities Bill 2018. As many as three lawmakers debated the bill for eight minutes. The bill provides for the regulation of the charities in the province.
• The government introduced the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2018 and the Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2018. The House referred these bills to the relevant standing committees.
• The House adopted a supplementary resolution recommending the federal government to amend the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 to control the misuse of powers by National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The resolution termed the NAB’s recent actions as against the human rights and values.
• The government presented the Annual Activity Reports of the Parks and Horticulture Authority Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Lahore, Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi for the year 2015-16 in the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as ten out of 12 Starred Questions were answered during the proceedings while two questions were disposed of due to absence of the concerned lawmakers. The lawmakers asked 22 supplementary questions as well.
• The House referred a PML-N Lawmaker’s Privilege Motion to the relevant committee.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised four Points of Order consuming as many minutes of the proceedings.
• The PTI lawmakers pointed out the quorum twice during the proceedings. However, it was completed after bells for five minutes on both occasion.
• The opposition lawmakers staged a protest during the proceedings demanding from the Chief Minister to clarify his position on allegations of corruption against him in Multan Metro Bus Project. The protest continued for 34 minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again at 0900 hours on Friday.

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.