ISLAMABAD, April 11, 2019: The Punjab Assembly’s eighth session, requisitioned by the opposition parties, was prorogued sine die on Thursday amid lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the only sitting of the eighth session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 41 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 51 minutes due to prayer break and lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1647 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in absence of the Speaker.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for 45 minutes.
• As many as 45 MPAs (12%) were present at the outset and 70 (19%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PRHP and PPPP attended the proceedings.
• As many as four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by the Minister for Law, the House unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution expressing grief on the sad demise of Chief Minister’s father and Ex MPA Sardar Fateh Muhammad Buzdar. His death was caused by a sudden cardiac arrest this Monday.
• The House granted two-month extension to Special Committees No. 1 and 4 for presentation of their reports.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House held general discussion on prevailing inflation and price control. Three lawmakers including the Minister for Industries and Commerce participated in debate for 48 minutes.
• The Ministers for Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering responded to two out of nine Starred Questions appearing on agenda. Two questions were disposed of due to absence of their movers while five remained unaddressed. The lawmakers asked three supplementary questions as well.
• An Adjournment Motion, moved by PML-N lawmaker, regarding lack of facilities in Mayo Hospital, Lahore remained unaddressed due to absence of the concerned minister.
• The Minister for Law responded to a Call Attention Notice (CAN) regarding robbery in Sargodha. The CAN was submitted by a PML-N lawmaker.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised six Points of Order for eight minutes.
• The lawmakers belonging to both treasury and opposition benches protested during the proceedings for 14 minutes after exchanging controversial remarks against each other. They were chanting slogans and bashing each other’s political leadership.
• A female lawmaker belonging to PTI pointed out quorum at 1902 hours. The Chair ordered to ring the bells for five minutes followed by head count but it was found incomplete which led to suspension of the proceedings initially for 29 minutes. The House met again at 1926 hours but quorum was found incomplete causing prorogation of the session.

Transparency

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