ISLAMABAD, December 06, 2018: The Punjab Assembly held discussion on agricultural issues and grievances of sugarcane growers on Thursday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the fifth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and 11 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1316 hours against the scheduled time of 1130 hours.
• The Speaker and Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 34 minutes respectively. The remaining proceedings for an hour and 26 minutes were chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition were absent.
• As many as 67 MPAs (18%) were present at the outset while 23 (6%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• The parliamentary leader Rah-e-Haq party attended the proceedings.
• Four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

 Representation and Responsiveness

• Seven lawmakers discussed the issues related to agriculture and grievances of sugarcane growers. The discussion consumed an hour and 26 minutes of the proceedings.
• Ministers for Agriculture and Food concluded debate and spoke for 15 and nine minutes respectively.
• Minister for Law moved a motion to discuss Annual Report of the Punjab Bait-ul-Maal for the year 2012.
• As many as four starred questions related to the Ministries of Auqaf and Religious Affairs and Transport were taken up. Four questions were deferred due to non-reply from the relevant ministries. The lawmakers asked 19 supplementary questions as well.

 Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised 17 Points of Order consuming 16 minutes of the proceedings.
• PML-N lawmakers protested on floor of the House for two minutes against Minister for Law’s comments against opposition.
• PML-N lawmakers walked out from proceedings for ten minutes against baton charge of police on their party workers outside NAB Court.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 07, 2018 (Friday) at 0900 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Punjab Assembly’s website.
• 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.