Punjab Assembly Holds Discussion on Price Control

ISLAMABAD, October 20, 2017: The Punjab Assembly held a general discussion on price control on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during fifth sitting of the 32nd session:

Members’ Participation

  • The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 53 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1036 hours against the scheduled time 0900 hours.
  • The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
  • The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
  • The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for an hour and 46 minutes.
  • As many as 13 MPAs (4%) were present at outset and 22 (6%) at adjournment of the sitting.
  • None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
  • Three minority lawmakers were present.

Output

  • The Standing Committee on Law and the Committee on Privileges presented their reports in the House.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • As many as seven out of 23 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while two questions were deferred on request of the movers and one was disposed of due to absence of concerned lawmaker. The remaining 13 questions were not taken up. The lawmakers also asked 15 supplementary questions.
  • The House deferred three Adjournment Motions submitted by lawmakers belonging to PTI and PML.
  • The Minister for Commerce and Industry opened the general discussion on price control that continued for 24 minutes. The Leader of the Opposition participated in the discussion.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The lawmakers raised four Points of Order consuming seven minutes of the proceedings.

Transparency

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