ISLAMABAD, October 18, 2016: The Punjab Assembly deferred a portion of its agenda standing on the name of lawmakers whose membership is suspended, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Tuesday.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has suspended the membership of 137 lawmakers of Punjab Assembly due to their failure in filing the Statement of Assets and Liabilities on time.

Following are some key observations of the House proceedings during third sitting of 24^th session:

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for 49 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1134 hours against the scheduled time of 1000 hours.
• The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting while the Speaker was not present.
• The Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did not attend the sitting.
• Sixteen lawmakers (4%) were present at outset and 23 (6%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• The Parliamentary leader of JI was present.
• Two minority members attended the sitting.

Output

• Moved by JI lawmaker, the House adopted a resolution urging the government to establish a university in each district of the province. Moreover, two resolutions were disposed of due to the absence of movers while two the same number of resolutions sponsored by suspended lawmakers were deferred.
• The House also adopted a supplementary resolution recommending dualization of Dera Ghazi Khan – Rajanpur Road.

Representation and Responsiveness

• Only one out of nine Starred Questions was taken up during the Question Hour while three supplementary questions were also asked. The remaining Starred Questions were deferred on request of the relevant ministers, including a minister whose membership is suspended.
• The House deferred an Adjournment Motion and two Zero Hour notices as well.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 13 Points of Order consuming as many minutes of proceedings.

Transparency

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