ISLAMABAD, May 23, 2016: The Punjab Assembly addressed entire agenda except Calling Attention Notices (CANs) on Monday during 12^th sitting of 21^st session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and 39 minutes while taking a break for 39 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1603 hours against the scheduled time 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour.
• 17 MPAs (4%) were present at outset and 18 (4%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Eight minority members were present.

Output

• Moved by the Leader of the Opposition, the House adopted a supplementary resolution condemning the drone attack in Balochistan.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government responded to six out of 19 starred questions appearing on the agenda while nine questions were disposed of due to absence of the relevant lawmakers and four were deferred. The lawmakers also asked 19 supplementary questions.
• The House discussed the procurement of wheat consuming 44 minutes. Seven lawmakers took part in the discussion.
• The House deferred five notices on matters of public importance during zero hour while one notice was taken up and answered by the government.
• The House did not take up CANs appearing on the agenda.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on seven points of order consuming six minutes of the proceeding.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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.