ISLAMABAD, September 24, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab was adjourned on Friday due to lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the first sitting of 35th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 28 minutes.
• The sitting started at 04:00 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker did not attend the sitting.
• The deputy speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 12 minutes while the remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of chairpersons.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 25 MPAs (seven percent) were present at the outset and seven (two percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the proceedings.
• One out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take up four bills including the Punjab Finance (Amendment) Bill 2021; the Punjab Board of Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2021; the Punjab Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, conservation and Management) (Amendment) Bill 2021and the Evacuee Property and Displaced Persons Laws (Repeal) (Amendment) Bill 2021.
• An Ordinance – the Punjab Commission for Regularization of Irregular Housing Schemes (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 – was not presented.

 Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up 12 out of 43 starred questions. In addition, the lawmakers asked 18 supplementary questions.
• The relevant ministers responded to six out of 15 zero hour notices which were about promotion of technical secretaries of Union Council inducted in 2007, dacoity incident and dilapidated condition of a bridge in Faisalabad (PP-104), illegal housing societies in Nankana Sahib, law and order situation in Sahiwal and water scarcity in Phularwan city in district Sargodha.

Order and Institutionalization

• Six lawmakers spoke on points of order for 18 minutes.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 06:03 pm following which the Chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes. The quorum was found incomplete upon counting and the proceedings remained suspended for 20 minutes. On resumption of the proceedings at 06:28 pm, the quorum was incomplete and the Chair adjourned the House to meet again on Monday, September 27, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on Assembly’s website.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by SANGAT Development Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted