ISLAMABAD, August 6, 2021, 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 ninth sitting of 34th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for 46 minutes.
• The sitting started at 10:00 am against the scheduled time of 09:00 am.
• A member of panel of chairpersons attended the entire sitting in the absence of speaker and deputy speaker.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 28 MPAs (seven percent) were present at the outset and 30 (eight percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leader attended the proceedings.
• Two out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House did not take up the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House neither observed question hours nor took up zero hour notices.

Order and Institutionalization

• Three lawmakers spoke on points of order for eight minutes.
• A PML-N lawmaker pointed out the quorum at 10:25 am 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 10:45 am, the quorum was incomplete and the Chair adjourned the House to meet again on Monday, August 9, 2021 at 01:00 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