ISLAMABAD, January 23, 2017: The Punjab Assembly took up its entire agenda amid opposition’s protest over minister’s remarks against political parties on Panama Leaks issue, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Monday.

Following are some key observations of House proceedings during first sitting of 26^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and nine minutes.
• The sitting started at 1556 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 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 an hour and 35 minutes.
• Twenty-five MPAs (7%) were present at outset and 86 (23%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PTI and PML-Z attended the sitting.
• Seven minority members were present.

Output

• Minister for Law laid the Punjab Civil Administration Ordinance 2016 before the House and also introduced the Punjab Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2017.
• The Standing Committees on Excise & Taxation and Revenue & Relief presented their reports on Bills No. 47/2016 and 46/2016 respectively.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 14 out of 36 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while 14 others were disposed of and eight were deferred. The lawmakers also asked 26 Supplementary Questions.
• Minister for Law responded to three Calling Attention Notices moved by PTI, PML and PML-N lawmakers.
• The House deferred a PML-N lawmaker’s Privilege Motion for one week.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on eight Points of Order consuming 15 minutes of the proceedings.
• Entire opposition protested on floor of the House for 20 minutes against remarks of Minister for Law about political parties highlighting Panama Leaks issue.

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.