ISLAMABAD, April 1, 2015: The Punjab Assembly continued its pre-budget debate during the fourth sitting of its 13th session, giving lawmakers an opportunity to express their priorities for the upcoming provincial budget, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Wednesday.

The sitting started 48 minutes behind the schedule with 17 lawmakers (5%) present at the start and 14 (4%) at the time of adjournment. Seventeen lawmakers participated in the pre-budget debate which took up 60% of the proceedings’ time. The Leader of the House, the Opposition Leader and the parliamentary leaders of all political parties were absent.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings:

Members’ Participation in the House Proceedings

• The Punjab Assembly met for three hours and one minute.
• The sitting started at 1048 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• Seventeen members (5%) were present at the start and 14 (4%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting.
• The Leader of the House and the Opposition Leader were absent.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Two out of eight minority members attended the proceedings.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Three out of 16 starred questions were taken up and responded by the relevant government departments. In addition, the MPAs raised three supplementary questions.
• Seventeen lawmakers – 16 from PML-N and one from PML – participated in the pre-budget debate for 108 minutes.
• The House took up four adjournment motions regarding the non-regularization of staff belonging to government commerce colleges, increase in beggars in main cities, transfer of Government Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital’s medical superintendent and delay in marking of fifth and eighth grade exams due to non-provision of answer sheets.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers raised seven points of order that consumed five minutes of the sitting.

Transparency

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

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This 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 excepted.