ISLAMABAD, September 15, 2017: The fifth sitting of the Punjab Assembly’s 31^st session was adjourned due to lack of quorum without taking up its regular business on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during the Friday’s sitting:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 58 minutes of which the proceedings remained suspended for 23 minutes due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 1024 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 seven minutes.
• As many as three MPAs (1%) were present at outset and 40 (11%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI attended the sitting.
• Two minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• The House did not take up the reports and the bills appearing on Orders of the Day.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as six out of 31 Starred Questions were taken up for answers during the proceedings while four questions were disposed of due to absence of the movers. The remaining questions were not taken up. The lawmakers also asked 16 supplementary questions.

• The House deferred an Adjournment Motion of PTI lawmaker and two Privilege Motions of PML-N lawmakers.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmaker spoke on 10 Points of Order consuming 13 minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1150 hours that led to suspension of the proceedings for 23 minutes. However, the quorum was still incomplete on resumption of the proceedings and the sitting was adjourned.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Information on Members’ attendance 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 regretted.