ISLAMABAD, July 9, 2021: The Punjab Assembly deferred one-third of its agenda on Friday due to ministerial absence and referred a government bill to committee, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the first sitting of 34th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 59 minutes.
• The sitting started at 04:46 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The deputy speaker presided over the entire sitting in the absence of speaker.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 29 MPAs (eight percent) were present at the outset and 34 (nine percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
• As many as three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Provincial minister for law introduced the Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which was referred to the relevant committee for consideration. He also laid the Audit Report on the Accounts of Daanish Schools and Centers of Excellence of Punjab (North) for the Audit Year 2018-19 which was referred to the Public Accounts Committee-II.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up 10 out of 38 starred questions, while lawmakers asked 18 supplementary questions as well.
• Provincial ministers for health and law responded to five zero hour notice related to parking fees in government hospitals, non-functioning machines at Wazirabad Institute of Cardiology and law and order situation in various districts of the province. Other three zero hour notices on the agenda were deferred due to absence of relevant ministers.
• A privilege motion of a PML-N lawmaker against police officials was deferred on the request of law minister.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers spoke on points of order for 22 minutes related to governance and law and order issues.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Monday, July 12, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

 Transparency

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

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by SANGAT Development Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted