ISLAMABAD, August 26, 2016: The Punjab Assembly was forced to defer eight Starred Questions and six Adjournment Motions amid the absence of Leader of the House, Leader of the Opposition and all Parliamentary leaders, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Friday.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during fifth sitting of the 23^rd session:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for 47 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1000 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Fifteen lawmakers (4%) were present at outset and 35 (9%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• None of the minority members was present.

Output

• The Standing Committees on Finance and Food and the Committee on Privileges presented their reports to the House on the matters referred to them.
• The House did not take up Annual Activity Reports of different government departments.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The written replies of only three out of 11 Starred Questions were received and disposed of due to absence of the movers. The Chair referred other eight unanswered Questions to the relevant standing committee and directed it to report within two months.
• A PML-N lawmaker moved a Privilege Motion against EDO Finance, Sialkot. The motion was referred to the relevant committee.
• The House deferred six Adjournment Motions (AMs) submitted by lawmakers belonging to PML-N, PTI and PML on health-related issues.

Order and Institutionalization

• A PML lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1042 hours that led to the adjournment of sitting as the quorum was not completed even after the ringing of bells for five minutes.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Information on Members’ attendance (except for parliamentary functionaries) is available on Punjab Assembly’s website.

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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 excepted.