ISLAMABAD, October 16, 2018: The Punjab Finance Minister presented the annual budget for financial year 2018-19 in the provincial assembly on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of the third (budget) session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for 54 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1620 hours against the scheduled time 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was also present.
• The Chief Minister attended the sitting for 52 minutes.
• The Finance Minister attended the sitting for 50 minutes.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings for 48 minutes.
• As many as 150 MPAs (40%) were present at outset and 298 (80%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of Rah-e-Haq attended the sitting.
• As many as six out of eight minority lawmakers also attended the sitting.

Output

• Provincial Minister for Finance introduced the Punjab Finance Bill, 2018 and presented the Annual Budget Statement for the financial year 2018-2019. He made a 36-minute long statement on the annual budgetary proposals of the government.

Representation and Responsiveness

Order and Institutionalization

• The opposition lawmakers protested during the speech of the Finance Minister and tore the copies of the agenda.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on October 19, 2018 (Friday) at 0900 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.