ISLAMABAD, May 19, 2017: The Punjab Assembly sitting was adjourned on Friday amidst protest by opposition parties against the government’s attempt to amend their resolution on Indian spy’s case in International Court of Justice, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 29^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours and 10 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1706 hours against the scheduled time 1500 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 56 minutes.
• Thirty-five MPAs (9%) were present at outset and 30 (8%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of JI and PML-Z attended the sitting.
• Five minority members were present.

Output

• The House did not take the ordinances appearing on the agenda.
• The Standing Committees on Industries and Commerce; Local Government and Community Development; and Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Mal presented their reports on legislative proposals referred to them.
• The Leader of the Opposition moved a resolution criticizing the government for diplomatic failure in International Court of Justice over Indian spy’s case. The Minister for Law proposed an amendment to the resolution. However, no voting took place on it.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as eight out of 14 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while four questions were disposed of and two were deferred. The lawmakers also asked 20 supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on four Points of Order consuming five minutes of the proceedings.
• A PML-N lawmaker staged a walkout over Chair’s refusal to allow her on a Point of Order.
• Entire Opposition protested on floor of the House for two minutes against an amendment by Minister for Law in the resolution moved by the Leader of the Opposition.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1835 minutes which led to suspension of the proceedings for 34 minutes. However, the quorum was found incomplete 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.