Punjab Assembly Continues General Discussion on Budget

ISLAMABAD, June 20, 2019: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab on Thursday continued the general discussion on provincial annual budget consuming 76 percent of the proceeding time, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during sixth sitting of the 10th session:

Members’ Participation

  • The House met for three hours and 51 minutes.
  • The sitting started at 1645 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
  • The Speaker did not attend the sitting.
  • The Deputy Speaker presided over the sitting for three hours and 43 minutes while a Member of the Panel of Chairpersons chaired rest of the proceedings.
  • The Leaders of the House did not attend the proceedings.
  • The Leader of the opposition attended the proceedings for 32 minutes.
  • The Finance Minister attended the proceedings for three hours and ten minutes.
  • As many as 90 MPAs (24%) were present at the outset and 26 (7%) at the adjournment of the sitting.
  • The parliamentary leaders of PPPP and PRHP attended the proceedings.
  • As many as six out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Representation and Responsiveness

  • Twenty-seven lawmakers – 12 of PTI, 11 of PML-N, and two each of PPPP and PML – participated in debate on the annual budget for the year 2019-20 for two hours and 56 minutes.

 Order and Institutionalization

  • Ten lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 17 minutes of the proceedings.
  • The House was adjourned to meet again on June 21, 2019 (Friday) at 0900 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