Punjab Assembly Approves Rules to Constitute Committee on Law Reforms

ISLAMABAD, November 9, 2020: The Punjab Assembly left most of its agenda unaddressed on Monday but approved 15 amendments to the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure including insertion of new rules to form Committee on Law Reforms, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during first sitting of 26^th session: 

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 19 minutes; however, the proceedings remained suspended for 58 minutes due to prayer break.
• The sitting started at 1626 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the entire sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker was not present.
• The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 37 (10%) MPAs were present at the outset and 92 (25%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• Parliamentary leader of PRHP attended the proceedings.
• Three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House unanimously passed 15 amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab, 1997 under Rule 244-A of the said Rules including insertion of new rules to form Committee on Law Reforms.
• The House neither observed question hour nor considered legislative proposals and Calling Attention Notices appearing on list of business.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as four lawmakers spoke on points of order for 23 minutes.
• PML-N lawmakers protested during the proceedings for 30 minutes against non-issuance of production order of the leader of the opposition and arrests of party workers.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on November 10, 2020 (Tuesday) at 1400 hours.

Transparency

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

The 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 regretted

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