ISLAMABAD, May 26, 2017: The lack of quorum persisted during sixth sitting of the Punjab Assembly’s 29^th session, as the proceedings had to be adjourned earlier again on Friday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of today’s proceedings:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 43 minutes that included 46-minute suspension of proceedings due to lack of quorum.
• The sitting started at 0956 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 sitting for eight minutes.
• Only one lawmaker was present at the outset and 60 legislators (16%) at the adjournment of sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Four minority members were present.

Output

• The House granted two-month extension to the Standing Committees on Information, Transport and Local Government and Community Development for presentation of their reports.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as three out of 13 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while two questions were deferred and eight were disposed of due to the absence of movers. The lawmakers also asked six supplementary questions.
• The House referred a PML-N lawmaker’s Privilege Motion to the relevant committee.
• The House deferred three Adjournment Motions of PML and PTI lawmakers on the request of the government.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on seven Points of Order consuming 13 minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1052 hours that led to the suspension of proceedings for 46 minutes. However, the quorum was found incomplete again on recount and the sitting was adjourned till Monday.

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.