ISLAMABAD, January 30, 2017: The Punjab Assembly held general discussion on agriculture while the Opposition parties protested over reference against Chief Minister, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Monday.

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

Members’ Participation

• The Punjab Assembly met for two hours.
• The sitting started at 1547 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 13 minutes while the Deputy Speaker was chaired the rest of the proceedings.
• The Chief Minister did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for an hour and 15 minutes.
• Fifteen MPAs (4%) were present at outset and 30 (8%) at adjournment of the sitting.
• None of the parliamentary leaders attended the sitting.
• Three minority members were present.

Output

• The House rejected a PTI lawmaker’s motion seeking leave to move a resolution for disapproval of the Punjab Civil Administration Ordinance 2016.

Representation and Responsiveness

• As many as 11 out of 34 Starred Questions were responded to by the government during Question Hour while nine questions were disposed of and one was deferred due to the absence of movers. The remaining questions were not taken up. The lawmakers also asked 14 supplementary questions.
• Minister for Law made a statement on a Calling Attention Notice about triple murder in Gujrat.
• The House deferred a Calling Attention Notice and an Adjournment Motion.
• Minister for Law inaugurated the general discussion on agriculture and spoke for 13 minutes. Another lawmaker also took part in discussion and consumed three minutes of proceedings.

Order and Institutionalization

• The lawmakers spoke on 12 Points of Order consuming eight minutes of the proceedings.
• Entire Opposition staged protests on floor of the House for 17 minutes regarding disqualification reference against Chief Minister.
• The quorum was pointed out twice during the sitting at 1725 hours and 1745 hours by PTI lawmakers. It was completed on bells at first instance while led to the adjournment on second occasion.

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.