ISLAMABAD, January 24, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab, on Friday, continued discussing the issues concerning Indian atrocities in Kashmir, inflation and security situation in the country, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during second sitting of the 18^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for an hour and 24 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1105 hours against the scheduled time of 0900 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting in absence of the Speaker.
• The Leaders of the House and the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 40 (11%) MPAs were present at the outset and 27 (7%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings.
• Three out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up only one out of 37 starred questions while the lawmakers asked four supplementary questions as well.
• The Chair deferred an Adjournment Motion (AM) of PML-N lawmaker highlighting mismanagement in Tehsil Headquarter Hospital Muridke due to absence of the Minister for Health.
• The House continued the general discussion on the subjects related to Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir, inflation in the country, and law and order situation. Two PML-N lawmakers participated in the discussion for 25 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

• As many as 14 lawmakers spoke on 21 Points of Order consuming 43 minutes of the proceedings.
• The entire opposition staged a protest for two minutes against the controversial statement of Minister for Information.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on January 27, 2020 (Monday) at 1500 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 PATTAN Development Organization – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are regretted