ISLAMABAD, December 24, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab deferred most of the Private Members’ agenda due to absence of the relevant ministers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet on Tuesday.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fifth sitting of the 17^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 27 minutes, however, the sitting remained suspended for 21 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1614 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for 53 minutes while rest of the sitting was chaired by a Member of Panel of Chairpersons.
• The Deputy Speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for 35 minutes.
• As many as 35(9%) MPAs were present at the outset and 27(15%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
• One out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House adopted three out of eleven resolutions sponsored by Private Members. The adopted resolutions recommended the Federal and the Provincial Government to repair fences alongside motorways in order to avoid road accidents, implement distinct development program at district level to uplift living standards of special persons and ensure provision of public toilet facility for women in villages. Another two private resolutions were rejected, five remained unaddressed due to absence of the mover and the concerned ministers and one was withdrawn by its mover.
• A PTI lawmaker presented a report of the Standing Committee on Higher Education regarding a legislative proposal as supplementary agenda.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up six out of 20 starred questions appearing on the list while the lawmakers asked 12 supplementary questions.
• The Chair referred an Adjournment Motion (AM) by a PTI lawmaker regarding nonregistered housing schemes in district Rawalpindi to the Special Committee for further deliberations. Another three AMs were deferred because of not receiving replies from the concerned departments while one motion remained unaddressed due to ministerial absence.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as five lawmakers spoke on eight Points of Order consuming 31 minutes of the proceedings.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on December 26, 2019 (Thursday) at 1500 hours.

Transparency

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