ISLAMABAD, October 21, 2016: The trend of low attendance persisted in the Punjab Assembly during sixth sitting of its 24^th session on Friday, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

The sitting remained suspended for 24 minutes due to lack of quorum which also witnessed protest by the Opposition lawmakers for 15 minutes.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 48 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1022 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 was present for an hour and 30 minutes.
• Twelve MPAs (3%) were present at outset and 50 (13%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of JI was present.
• Four minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• Provincial Minister for Human Rights & Minorities Affairs introduced two bills including the Punjab Local Government (Sixth Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2016. Both bills were referred to the relevant committee for further deliberations.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as six out of 16 Starred Questions were responded to during the Question Hour while 12 supplementary questions were also asked.
• An adjournment motion against Excise and Taxation Department Gujranwala was presented but kept pending for further discussion on it in any of the next sitting.
• Parliamentary Secretary for Housing, Urban Development & Public Health Engineering spoke for four minutes on Annual Activity Report of Parks and Horticulture Authority Lahore for the Year 2014-15.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on seven Points of Order consuming nine minutes of proceedings.
• Opposition parties protested on floor of the House for 15 minutes against allegations being levelled by the federal ministers over funding issues of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1119 hours following which the chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. Upon counting at 1125 hours, the quorum was found incomplete and sitting remained suspended for 24 minutes.

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.