ISLAMABAD, May 16, 2016: The Punjab Assembly proceeding could not continue its proceeding except for Question Hour due to lack of quorum on Monday during seventh sitting of 21^st session, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

It was fourth consecutive sitting adjourned due to lack of quorum.

Following are some key observations of the House proceeding:

Members’ Participation in House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for an hour and 28 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1510 hours against the scheduled time 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• 7 MPAs (2%) were present at outset and 40 (11%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Four minority members were present.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The government responded to nine out of 42 starred questions on floor of the House while one questions was disposed of and another was deferred. The lawmakers asked also 17 supplementary questions.
• The Parliamentary Secretary for Finance inaugurated the discussion on Annual Report of the Parks and Horticulture Authority Lahore for the year 2013-2014. He spoke for three minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on two points of order consuming three minutes of the proceeding.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 1634 hours after which the Chair ordered to ring the bells for five minutes. The quorum was still incomplete on recounting so the sitting was adjourned.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• The attendance of lawmakers was available to the media and observers.

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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.