ISLAMABAD, October 16, 2017: The Punjab Assembly could not transact its agenda due to low attendance as most lawmakers including the Leaders of the House and the Opposition were absent, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 32^nd Session :

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for 18 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1814 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House (Chief Minister) and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 48 MPAs (13%) were present at the outset and 55 (15%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Three minority lawmakers were present.

Output

• Two Government Bills – the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2017 and the Punjab Zakat and Ushr Bill 2017 were not taken up.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The Chair suspended the Questions Hour till next week.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on nine Points of Order consuming as many minutes of the proceedings.
• A PTI lawmaker pointed out quorum at 1807 hours that led to the adjournment of the sitting.
• The house adjourned at 1814 to meet again on Tuesday 17, 2017 at 1000 hours.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and public.
• Partial 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.