Punjab Assembly Adjourned Due to Lack of Quorum

ISLAMABAD, December 20, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab was adjourned on Friday due to the lack of quorum, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of the 17th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for an hour and eight minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1040 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
  • A Member of Panel of Chairpersons presided over the entire proceedings in absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
  • The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
  • As many as 22(6%) MPAs were present at the outset and 47(13%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
  • Three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

  • The Minister for Law presented two audit reports on the accounts of Lahore Ring Road Authority and Construction of Metro Bus Project, Multan for Financial Year 2016-17. Both reports were referred to the Public Accounts Committee.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • The House took up 11 out of 24 starred questions appearing on list while the lawmakers asked 29 supplementary questions.

Order and Institutionalization

  • The lawmakers spoke on three Points of Order consuming four minutes of the proceedings.
  • A PML-N lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1141 hours leading to the ringing of bells for five minutes. However, the quorum was found incomplete on headcount after the bells and the House was adjourned to meet again on December 23, 2019 (Monday) at 1500 hours.

Transparency

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

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.