Punjab Assembly Debates Agriculture Related Issues

ISLAMABAD, December 05, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab discussed grievances of sugarcane growers and issues pertaining to the agriculture sector on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

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

Members’ Participation

  • The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and 21 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1243 hours against the scheduled time of 1100 hours.
  • The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for two hours and 38 minutes while the rest of the sitting was chaired by a member from Panel of Chairpersons.
  • The Speaker did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition were absent.
  • As many as 115 MPAs (31%) were present at the outset while 30 (8%) at the adjournment of sitting.
  • The parliamentary leader Rah-e-Haq party attended the proceedings.
  • Two out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

 Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House held discussion on issues related to food and agriculture sector. As many as 12 lawmakers participated in the debate consuming an hour and 32 minutes of the proceedings.
  • As many as eight starred questions related to the Ministries of Higher Education, Schools Education and Special Education were taken up. Two questions were disposed while lawmakers asked 19 supplementary questions as well.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • The lawmakers raised eight Points of Order consuming 13 minutes of the proceedings.
  • PML-N lawmakers protested on floor of the House for two minutes against Chair’s decision to dispose of a question.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on December 06, 2018 (Thursday) at 1130 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.