ISLAMABAD, September 21, 2017: The Punjab Assembly’s Question Hour was disrupted by the early adjournment of the sitting due to lack of quorum on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Following are key observations of the House proceedings during ninth sitting of the 31st session:
Members’ Participation
- The Punjab Assembly met for 54 minutes.
- The sitting started at 1121 hours against the scheduled time of 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 proceedings for 32 minutes.
- Fifteen MPAs (4%) were present at the outset and 63 (17%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
- None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
- None of the minority lawmakers were present.
Output
- The House did not take up the reports appearing on the Orders of the Day.
Representation and Responsiveness
- As many as eight out of 20 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while 10 questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers and two others were deferred. The lawmakers also asked 15 supplementary questions.
Order and Institutionalization
- The lawmakers spoke on 12 Points of Order consuming 11 minutes of the proceedings.
- A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1207 hours. The chair ordered the headcount and ringing of bells for five minutes. Later on, the quorum was not found complete and the sitting was adjourned for the next day.
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.
